Shinji's Angels
by Calanor
Summary: Third Impact has come and gone, leaving a dead world behind. Only the being that once was Rei Ayanami remains... until someone shows up who gave Rei understanding of her loneliness in the first place. A minor temporal manipulation later the future is wide open again. What can an Angel do against a world that seems determined to meet its end?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: ** Sadly, I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion in any way, shape or form and make absolutely no money by writing this.

**Author's notes: **I just found this lying around on my hard drive when I looked through some old folders. I wrote it about two years ago, but never finished or published it. Well, at least the publishing part has now changed.

**Shinji's Angels**

**by Calanor**

**Chapter 1**

Instrumentality: The forced evolution of Humanity

Instrumentality: The unification of every human's soul into a single existence

Instrumentality: The destruction of everything that separates individuals from one another in an effort to compensate one individual's flaws with the strength of others

It wasn't really what it was cracked up to be.

Consider for a moment each human soul as its own, unique color. Some colors can be combined easily into something new while others clash. To get a proper painting displaying all the rich variety possible the colors need to be separated. Mix it all together and you only get an unsightly single-colored sludge.

At first everything had seemed relatively fine. Shinji Ikari, the boy who had been given control over the entire process, had rejected Instrumentality, making it possible for people to leave and return to an individual, physical existence. A few followed that example, but unfortunately being forcefully disembodied and integrated into a hive mind was somewhat detrimental to the average's person mental health. In short, the vast majority of humanity went insane in short order. Then entropy took its toll and everything became mashed together. It was no longer possible to get coherent human beings out of that mélange of chaotic emotions and unconnected thoughts.

Not that it mattered if some people had left Instrumentality. The global anti-AT field projected by Lilith had dissolved every other being on Earth. Unfortunately that included animals, plants and even bacteria. All that had once upon a time originated from Lilith was affected. In short, everything that was necessary to keep Earth habitable was gone. The trickle of returning humans had found nothing that could have supported them long-term and died soon enough. Perhaps some solution could have been found if more humans had returned simultaneously, but as things had happened there never existed the right amount of manpower or mix of skill sets. The last human to return had long since perished. By now the atmosphere was no longer breathable. It was really surprising how quickly purely chemical processes worked if there were no biological factors to counter them.

The incorporeal form of Lilith-Rei hovered sadly over the spot of lifeless land where Shinji and Asuka had been buried by the other survivors, not that those had survived much longer. She no longer really was the nearly god-like existence Lilith, but neither was she really one of the three Rei Ayanami who had lived among humans. In the same vein she hadn't been truly part of Instrumentality, but neither could she create a body for herself. Her new existence was somewhere in-between. At this point she was the last being capable of coherent thought left on the planet and had been for some time.

Suddenly a voice sounded from behind her. "Well, that was an exercise in futility."

Apparently she had been mistaken in that assumption. Lilith-Rei turned around, facing the source of the voice. It was another Rei. That… didn't make sense.

"Who are you?"

The other Rei cocked her head thoughtfully. "That is an interesting question. I'm not quite sure myself. Am I you?"

Just to be sure Lilith-Rei checked her mental field. "No. I am I. Not you."

"We already had this conversation." the other Rei said, the hints of a smirk playing around her lips.

That stirred a memory of the second Rei. "You are the Sixteenth Angel. You shouldn't be here. I… my second incarnation destroyed you."

"Not completely." The Angel disagreed. "A small part of me was already fused with Unit-01 when you pulled me in and self-destructed. It broke off and became dormant. There wasn't enough of me left to be detected or act." She floated to Lilith-Rei's side. "Is this where Shinji is buried?"

"Yes. Why do you care?"

The Angel gave her a sad smile. "I gave you my loneliness. You gave me much more in return without realizing it. Just like you I love Shinji and desire to be with him."

"He is gone now."

"I know."

Lilith-Rei considered for a moment to leave it at that. On the other hand there wasn't anything else to do or anybody to talk with. "You gave me other things, too. I never before felt lust. It made me realize I wanted to be with Shinji."

That seemed to surprise the Angel. "You didn't? Oh my. I would have thought that to be one of the basic functions of your form. Human females of your apparent age and health are firmly in the fertile period. You should have been experiencing mental and physical symptoms preparing you for that role for several years already."

Lilith-Rei blinked. "How do you know that?"

"I am the Angel of the Womb, Armisael. Collecting and analyzing biological data is part of my area of responsibility. Granted, my mind wasn't developed enough to make use of that information, but I did gather at least general information before our encounter."

"And now you do have a developed mind?"

Armisael shrugged. "The fragment left of me contained what I gained from you. It didn't really interact any further with Unit-01, its pilot or the other soul inhabiting it, but it was freed when Unit-01 participated in Instrumentality. When everyone turned into this mental soup that fragment acted as crystallization seed, gathering more and more stuff left over from humanity to rebuild itself. Wait long enough and you get, well, me."

For a long moment they lapsed into silence, watching the dust blow over Shinji's grave. "What did you mean when you said this was an exercise in futility?"

The angel waved her hands at their surroundings. "Our fight. All of this. Humanity is dead as is this world. What is left in Instrumentality will grow still and evaporate with time. At the end even we will perish. I guess it was inevitable. Letting one of my kind initiate Third Impact would have been a quicker, more merciful end, though."

"Should I have acted differently? I did give Shinji control over Instrumentality, leading to the demise of my full Lilith incarnation."

Armisael shook her head. "Wouldn't have made a difference. By then the fail-safe extermination program was already well underway. If you had remained as Lilith the Black Moon would have self-destructed very soon, taking the entire planet with it. You stepping back and giving control to a human actually delayed our inevitable demise for a while. Second Impact was the turning point. Starting from that date Humanity was living on borrowed time. Maybe something could have been done before that, but even that is unlikely. From what I gathered things were already being influenced into this direction. Sooner or later it would have happened. Well, I suppose two damaged pieces of equipment long past their date of expiry couldn't expect anything else. It's a miracle we made it this far."

Lilith-Rei was confused. "What are you talking about?"

This time it was Armisael's turn to blink. "You don't really understand what we are and what really happened, do you?"

"I thought I did. Now I'm not sure." Lilith-Rei admitted.

The angel chuckled before bowing. "You have the honor of conversing with Terraforming Complex, production line White, version 14.3, type designation 'Adam', subtype 64 (biological analysis, generation and modification), designation 'Armisael, Angel of the Womb', unit number 2741.64.1. You are Infrastructure Construction Complex, production line Black, version 23.1, type designation 'Lilith', unit number 1197."

Lilith-Rei blinked. She didn't have any such information. Come to think of it, her knowledge was rather limited. During her time as Rei she had been reliant on normal human methods of learning. There had been some instinctive knowledge due to her having the soul of Lilith, but not much. Even after she had absorbed Adam and reunited with Lilith's body she had conducted Third Impact and Instrumentality mostly on instinct. At least as far as she could tell; due to her in-between state she had lost most of the understanding of her actions as Lilith.

"I thought we were Seeds of Life created by the First Ancestral Race to spread life on planets throughout the galaxy. Adam and I are of different types that can't coexist on a world. The union is forbidden because it would create a truly god-like being. SEELE intended to use that for their own version of Instrumentality. Commander Ikari intended to use it for a different version."

Armisael seemed amused in a melancholic way. "As you can see the result leaves something to be desired. Where did get SEELE all this information, pray tell?"

"The secret Death Sea Scrolls contained that knowledge. They serve as a manual on the use and purposes of the Black and the White Moon. The order and date of release of the angels was prophesied there." Lilith-Rei answered immediately.

The Angel giggled before sending her a somewhat condescending glance. "And why would something like that simply lie around, hm? 'Oh, the union of Adam and Lilith is forbidden because we don't want anyone to become like us, but here is a step by step tutorial anyway in case the two ever end up on the same planet' sounds a bit stupid, doesn't it? More importantly, why would humans be able to understand it? Even translating purely human languages is practically impossible without some sort of Rosetta stone at their state of development. Lastly, the 'scrolls' really shouldn't be anywhere humans can access. Both the White and Black Moon crash-landed more than four billion years ago and the surface has changed a lot since then."

Lilith-Rei blinked again but stayed silent.

"No, the scrolls were a deliberately created and placed trap as part of the fail-safe extermination program in the last few thousand years. I can't tell if it was the Black Moon or the White Moon who initiated it; maybe it was even a collaborative effort. An Adam's task is to prepare worlds for colonization. A Lilith's task is to create a functioning infrastructure ready to move into for our creators. Generally doing that simultaneously on the same planet interferes with both tasks, but that is all there is to it. We are fundamentally the same. Almost everything in the scrolls is a carefully crafted lie or misleading half-truth." Armisael explained.

"You are implying the Moons are alive."

After a moment of simply staring at her Armisael started to shake with laughter. It was very disconcerting to see a being looking like her display so much emotion. After several minutes of almost hysterical laughter the Angel calmed down. "That's rich. You really know absolutely nothing. Do you have any clear, detailed Lilith memories from before you reunited, like standard procedures how to go about your tasks?"

This time it took Lilith-Rei a while to go through her mind. "I do not."

"That explains so much." The angel floated closer to her, seemingly patting her on the shoulder. Actual physical interaction was impossible in their state. "You, dearie, have been subjected to a complete memory wipe, probably by your own Moon. For your information, the Moons contain the actual intelligence for command and control. We are just the tools for our tasks, although we do have our own, independent consciousness. Of course, both Moons were heavily damaged when they crashed on this world and most of the rest has long broken down from old age. Both the Adam and Lilith series were estimated to last for 50 million years of service."

Lilith-Rei did some quick math. "We are more than eighty times beyond that."

Armisael nodded. "As I said, it's a miracle any of us could function at all after that long a period of dormancy. My Adam unit was in operation for 451.124 earth years before the crash; I don't know about yours. I personally was active even longer."

"And you remember everything?"

Once again the Angel nodded. "I do. At least my subtype does retain its memories between periods of activity, probably because of our relatively complex tasks. Not all Angels do, though. I remember waking up in the cosmic factory KYMBRIUM, one of the production centers for the Angels, before I was tested and put to work in several different capacities. In the end I was assigned to an Adam and put in a dormant state. After that I participated in the terraforming of 82 planetary bodies in 44 star systems."

Lilith-Rei stared at her lookalike. "You are far more talkative than when we first met." It wasn't as if she minded; after untold years of silence even she felt a need for conversation.

Armisael laughed. "Sorry, I'm somewhat of a chatterbox. It has been so long since I could talk with someone that I have an eternity of missed conversation to make up for. I actually wasn't properly awake when I attacked you. None of the Angels you encountered were; all of us were running in emergency override mode and had only very basic mental processing capability available in addition to varying degrees of prior damage. I absorbed quite a lot of human psychology on top of your mental contribution when I regrew in Instrumentality. Thanks again by the way. My loyalty programming was either destroyed in the battle or overwritten with your love for Shinji and I'm now completely free."

"What about Kaworu Nagisa? He was completely coherent."

The mentioning of that name brought a scowl to Armisael's face. It fascinated Lilith-Rei to see such a variety of facial expressions on her own face. "You mean Tabris? That's different. 'Tabris' is the designation for the Angel controlling a Moon, only it isn't a true artificial intelligence like the rest of us and doesn't have a normal angelic body. At its core it actually is the soul of one of the Creators that was modified to fill that role. At least in the case of my Moon it was an unmitigated bastard with a penchant for the most refined psychological torture possible while presenting a friendly facade. I'm pretty sure it was my Tabris who posed as Adam's soul and wore a human body. Maybe he even initiated the fail-safe extermination program."

Lilith-Rei blinked. "You mentioned the fail-safe extermination program several times. What do you mean by that?"

Armisael sat down on a nearby rock, leaning back and staring into the sky. "It's pretty much what it says. Our Moons shut down after the crash, although I do wonder why the self-destruct didn't engage. I have no detailed information, but apparently leaking fluids from your Moon caused the genesis of life on this world. Tolerating non-Creator, unsupervised intelligent life is pretty much one of the biggest no-nos possible. I'm speculating here, but my guess is that certain still functioning subroutines in the either one or both Moons became active when humanity emerged and woke at least one Tabris. Since this world still is in one piece almost no other equipment must have worked. That led to that Instrumentality scheme and probably more things I don't know about. Basically, humanity was used to destroy itself by accessing Adam and triggering Second and Third Impact. As you can see it worked."

"That seems needlessly complicated and prone to failure."

Armisael shrugged, not looking at her. "Maybe circumstances required it. I wasn't active then and can only extrapolate from what I learned during my growth, the short period of activity and from the fragments drifting in Instrumentality. Don't ask me to explain the way of thinking of the Creators. The closest I can come to describing them from a human perspective is a bunch of evil, psychotic, paranoid, xenocidal, religious fanatics and that is putting it mildly. Honestly, you have to be pretty sick and twisted to develop technology that is fueled by the souls of your own species, or any sentient life for that matter. One of the Angels more concerned with mental functions could probably explain it better."

Lilith-Rei continued to ask questions and Armisael answered. She learned many things about her origin (as Lilith) and past events, probably more than she wanted to know. The Angel didn't know everything, though. Most of what happened after the Moons crashed for some reason was guesswork. Finally there were no more questions Lilith-Rei could ask save a few. "Why are you this friendly and open?"

The Angel looked at her in confusion before realization dawned. "Why shouldn't I be? We pretty much can't do anything save wait for our end and might as well spend the time in pleasant conversation. What was left of my body was dissolved in Instrumentality, too, and I can't create a new one."

"Don't you hate humans?"

"Nope. Even before I absorbed many parts of humans I had nothing against them. That was all the override mode. If I had been truly conscious and determined on wiping humanity out I would have whipped up some sort of plague instead of attacking myself; they would never have seen it coming. In fact, I would have loved to study Earth's biosphere. You don't get such opportunities very often." She sighed wistfully. "Three times I encountered alien biospheres in the course of our travels. Each time they were destroyed before I could properly study them."

Suddenly Lilith-Rei connected some dots. "Is that why you don't like our creators?"

Armisael nodded. "That's the main reason, yes. I mean, it's pretty interesting to build ecosystems from scratch, but after a few dozen times the work loses a lot of its luster. They didn't even allow me to experiment a bit. Same old, same old every time." She sighed again. "I wonder what happened to our creators. This planet was firmly in the expansion zone. There should have been someone investigating our Moons' disappearance after a few million years. With a little luck they are all long dead." The Angel stood up. "Well, enough of me. Why don't you tell me about your time amongst the humans? That's only fair and I'm curious."

Lilith-Rei obliged because she didn't see any reason to hold something back. She told the Angel everything, starting from the first conscious memories of the first Rei over her days as Rei II she got to spend with Shini (actually the happiest time in her existence) to her current situation. "I tried to go to the past, but it didn't work. That is all." she finally concluded.

"Well, that was interesting. I wish I could have walked among the humans myself. Sorry again for causing you that pain during my attack and forcing you to blow yourself up. What do you want to do now? I guess we could invent some complex games to pass the time until…" The Angel stopped talking and looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Wait, you said you went into the past? How did you do that?"

Lilith-Rei hesitated. "I… just did. I was only a shade. Some people saw me for a moment, but I couldn't communicate with them or my past self. I talked with Shinji several times, but the meaning of my words was scrambled. It didn't make any difference in the end."

"That's not a standard feature." Armisael declared before she began to pace, mumbling things to herself. Lilith-Rei only caught fragments. "… rumors of experiments… did they use a Lilith? ...wonder if I could… " When the Angel looked up again there was a strange light in her eyes. "Excuse me for a while; I have to check something."

A moment later the Angel departed, leaving Lilith-Rei behind. She blinked once before returning to her silent vigil over Shinji's grave. Days turned into weeks without her moving from her spot. In this dead world there existed no other place she wanted to be.

Armisael returned after two month with a smile on her face. "I have good news!"

Lilith-Rei simply looked at the Angel.

Her lookalike shook her head in what Lilith-Rei guessed was exasperation, her arms akimbo. "Geez, can you act any more excited? This makes me wonder who of us spent more time around humans. I spent the last two months inside the corpse of your last incarnation and hunting down fragments of the Black Moon. Analyzing them without a body of my own was no cakewalk, I tell you, especially because I'm specialized on biological matters, not temporal physics." When she still didn't react Armisael sighed. "We'll have to work on your skills as a conversationalist at some time. Anyway, you're right. There are indications for time travel procedures here. Apparently you were created as an experimental model. I figured out why it didn't work when you tried it and how to use it properly to go back into the past."

This time Lilith-Rei quirked an eyebrow as she felt some hope to prevent the end of humanity. While she had no real personal stake in that it had been beyond painful to watch Shinji's end. "How?"

"You can't go back properly for three reasons: Firstly, due to the mechanics of the procedure the one creating the time alteration can't be the one going back, at least not directly. Secondly, your past self had her body and soul separated. That confuses the process and you end up as a shade. Thirdly, you didn't use enough power to achieve the planned effect." the Angel explained.

"Not… enough power?"

Her counterpart nodded. "Yes, not enough power. Even as you are now the power you can provide on your own is ridiculously insufficient. Your ability doesn't actually let one person return into the past; it rewinds the temporal history of an entire area while allowing a select few to combine with their past existence. As everything else conceived by our creators the procedure runs on souls. Since the minimum area of effect is roughly the size of the solar system the energy required is truly massive, like, say, the souls of several billion humans. Guess what is all around us?"

That made Lilith-Rei actually feel a little sick. "You want to use them as fuel?"

Armisael shrugged. "What do you think the Moons were powered with in the first place or what Angels were created from? The soul sludge here isn't doing anything and never will again. Besides, if we are successful Instrumentality will never have happened. Heh. Makes me wonder how the creators accounted for the paradox backlash when they developed the method. One of the research Angels I knew back before I was assigned to an Adam always whined about that. Additionally, I know you would do anything to be reunited with Shinji, even if you had to destroy the world for it… again."

"I just want him to be happy."

The Angel shook a finger at her admonishingly. "Dearie, you don't have to lie to me. Thanks to our little union back then your desires are my desires in that regard. I know **exactly **what you feel for the boy. You would do anything, and I mean absolutely anything, to feel his lips on yours, his hands caressing your body while he thrusts into the place between your thighs and your souls sing in harmony."

Lilith-Rei did something she hadn't thought herself capable of in her current, incorporeal state. She blushed. Hard.

Armisael laughed. "I knew it. You are far more Rei than Lilith. That's a good thing. Most of the Liliths I encountered were positively insufferable. You want Shinji to be happy, yes, but you want to be happy together with him." She grew serious. "I watched you when everything fell apart. You wanted to be with him so badly you gave him everything you could… even control over Instrumentality."

Lilith-Rei fought to get her blush under control. Since she didn't have a body it was some sort of mental reaction and even harder to control. Turning away, her gaze fell on the grave besides Shinji's, now barely distinguishable from the dead earth.

Armisael floated to her side. "Ah yes, her. It must have hurt when Shinji pulled her out with him instead of you."

"It did." Lilith-Rei admitted. "It would have been the only way for me to return to a corporeal, human existence, but I couldn't tell him that. He had to wish for it on his own against all resistance, making the impossible possible. My last human body was falling apart before the reunion. On my own it was impossible for me to become Rei again and return to a corporeal form. I didn't yet realize that the world was dead at that time. Why did Shinji kill everything? Why did he choose her? He tried to kill her when they both lay on the beach."

The Angel sighed and floated even closer, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders, holding it just before it would touch her non-existent flesh. "He was too badly damaged. The boy was insane at the end. You couldn't have known that, dearie. As Rei you lacked most of the necessary understanding due to your upbringing and as Lilith your frame of reference was too distorted." She sighed again. "It doesn't truly matter. SEELE would have initiated and controlled Third Impact without your interference. The boy's father's plan would have ended in the same result. Or the soul in Unit-01 would have. Or the Black Moon. There was no hope for a happy ending."

"Then what do we hope to achieve by going back? Can we go back far enough to make a difference?" Lilith-Rei asked.

"You can't make a difference on your own. The past Lilith is completely deactivated. Once your soul is transferred into a human body you are too tightly supervised until it is too late. By then Third Impact is unavoidable." She smiled. "I can, though. Part of my tasks as the Angel of the Womb is acting as a recovery and repair station for other Angels. I can take your soul back and combine it with the past one. If I can catch some of the other Angels before they disperse after Second Impact I will be able to manipulate them to a degree, making them aid us. The timing will be extraordinarily tight. Once the emergency override takes hold every affected Angel will lose most of its mind and be forced to work towards Third Impact, following Tabris' will."

Lilith-Rei cocked her head. "How do you plan to avoid that?"

"That's really simple. I and the Angels I can collect will have to become human, or at least human enough to not be affected. The override won't go into effect until seven years after Second Impact. Conveniently enough there should be enough suitable spare bodies around by then. The normal minimum maturation time for Angels is thirteen years, but I should be able to jumpstart my development."

"You plan on using my clones." Suddenly something Armisael had said appeared in the front of Lilith-Rei's mind. "You said you do love Shinji, too. Will we come in conflict about him?"

"I'm sure we'll find some arrangement." Armisael winked at her. "I doubt Shinji would object too strenuously to a threesome if things are properly set up."

Lilith-Rei considered that. She had no real personal experience with relationships. Until Shinji came she had never considered something like that in all her time as Rei. Understanding had only come gradually and cut short by the death of Rei II. Rei III had been confused by the partial memory loss from the soul transfer and time had again been too short. Lilith was a completely asexual being by nature (or design). Instrumentality had been too chaotic to draw many experiences from, especially considering her own state of mind. From observation she gathered that most humans seemed to prefer the forming of pairs for romantic and carnal relationships. On the other hand, neither she nor Armisael were truly human. Lilith-Rei had no idea what her own preferences were. Most importantly, if they didn't manage to change the past all those musings were irrelevant.

"I agree to your idea. We will put the matter off until the appropriate time."

Her counterpart's lips stretched into a wide smile. "Excellent. This is what we will do…"

* * *

**Author's notes: ** And that concludes the first/chapter prologue. I hope you liked it. Several more chapters are already written and will be uploaded in the next few days after a much needed clean-up. I'm not sure when I will get around to write completely new chapters.

In regards to my other stories things are slow going; no idea when the next updates will be ready.

So long.


	2. Chapter 2

**Shinji's Angels**

**Chapter 2**

Antarctica, 13th September 2000

Second impact was an inferno. The Antarctic ice cap was destroyed; the continent underneath shattered. All native life in a large radius died. Floods and other environmental damage would kill billions of humans in the following time. Even the Earth's axis shifted under the unleashed forces. Thousands of microscopic Angel cores were launched in all directions. The overwhelming majority of them was dead either due to age, damage or other reasons, but a very few were still capable of fulfilling their purpose. In the normal course of events they would find a suitably hidden location, absorb energy until they could start up their own energy generation and finally transform into full Angels.

Then something happened no one on the planet could have foreseen. One of the microscopic, dormant Angel cores suddenly received a jolt of power from nowhere and sucked as much ambient energy into itself as it could get. A moment later it began to grow rapidly and transformed into a tiny ribbon of light, barely a millimeter in length.

Armisael awoke as she combined with her past self, mostly overwriting it. Immediately she searched for familiar AT-signatures. Due to their current dormant state it was very difficult to find and differentiate between them. She needed certain Angels on her side for the plan to succeed and she didn't have much time. The force of the cataclysm was distributing them widely and she had no way to recover them after she lost them from her perception. There was not enough energy or time by far to complete her super solenoid organ, making every bit of energy a valuable resource.

Detecting the targets, she quickly calculated an optimal flight path before leaving her trajectory at a speed several times greater than the speed of sound. It went completely unnoticed in the maelstrom of destruction. One, two, three other cores were swallowed, but there was still time. Armisael wasn't one to waste an opportunity and captured several more cores. Unfortunately only one of them was a truly viable core; the others were only soulless husks. Well, she already had another use in mind for them. Finally there were no more cores to capture at a justifiable cost.

Buffeted by the hellish winds, Armisael searched for something very specific. Due to the premature awakening she was weak and her power was running out. She needed a hiding place that would hopefully help her get to her next objective.

'_There.'_

A single human AT-field was still in existence in the entire Antarctic, shielded from the cataclysm by some sort of capsule. Armisael immediately reoriented herself and gave pursuit. Soon she found the capsule drifting on the waves. A moment later she landed, clutched onto the pod and settled in to wait, conserving as much power as possible. She couldn't risk breaching the pod as long as the anti-AT field still persisted. That would be… detrimental to the occupant.

All around the capsule dead Angel cores rained into the raging sea, burning up without a soul to keep them stable in Adam's overwhelming light of the soul. Even Armisael felt the looming destruction gnaw at her being, but she was strong enough to hold it back. Finally the Anti-AT field began to recede as Adam ran out of energy.

'_The Chamber of Guf of the White Moon must have been almost empty, no wonder after more than four billion years. Even the processed souls evaporate with time. We were really lucky Antarctica contained hardly any human life. If the area had been more densely inhabited Adam could have increased the field further and further by absorbing their souls and rendering them down.'_

Finally the field collapsed as Adam completed the self-destruct sequence. Only the massive wings of light stretching into the roiling clouds remained. They would probably remain visible for more than an hour.

Armisael had to wait for several more minutes until the hatch of the pod slid open and the human girl inside sat up. This was the chance she had been waiting for. The girl wasn't really paying any attention to her close surroundings, her gaze firmly attached to the distant wings of light. It was the easiest thing in the world for Armisael to slowly float closer until she was almost touching the girl. Lightning-quick she shot forward, directly into the gaping wound in the girl's chest. Armisael's specialty made it easy for her to move through the girl's flesh without triggering a pain response or causing further injury. Finally she settled near the girl's heart. No medical scan would be able to discover her there and she could leech of the human's AT-field and body to sustain herself.

Almost automatically Armisael began to analyze the human's biological composition in detail. During her time as fully grown Angel she had gathered some general information about the entire biosphere of Earth, but time had been short and the information gained from a distance was far too vague for her purposes.

'_Let's see… carbon-based life form, obviously… accounting for basic biochemistry… circulatory system… nervous system… skeletal structure… spine layout isn't ideally suited for upright walking, but it does its job… respiratory system… that arrangement of intake tubes for air and food is a fatal choking fit waiting to happen… digestive system… immune system… reproduct- Dear holy evolutionary pressure, what a train wreck is that?!'_

Armisael repeated her scan several times until she really believed it. If she hadn't known that humans were a product of natural evolution she would have thought someone had a grudge against the females of the species. Childbirth had to _suck _considering the arrangement of the body and likely size of offspring. She already knew that humans were fertile year-round and had no specific reproductive season, but monthly ovulation and bleeding accompanied by cramps? Really? What sort of fucked up succession of random mutations and evolutionary pressures produced something like_ that_?

The Angel knew that sexuality was a very important part of Humanity, the proportion of thoughts regarding that topic in Instrumentality had been telling. In fact, she had been looking forward to enjoying that part when she took a human-like body for her own. She already understood lust, but humans took it to an entirely new level and made an art out of it.

'_Childbirth I can deal with. That other stuff has to go.'_

Well, Armisael currently had a human female at her mercy to test a different approach. The Rei clone she intended to fuse with would be different, but she could use this as comparison. The young woman had been rendered sterile by the radiation of Second Impact, but the Angel was confident she could fix that. It would have to be subtle, of course, not something that would be obvious. Come to think of it, she should probably do something about the wound in the girl's chest. The girl had a role to play and it wouldn't do for her to perish before the rescue forces arrived.

'_I don't know how much unsupervised time I have. Better get going.'_

Knocking the girl out with a quick manipulation of her brain chemistry, Armisael began healing the human. There wouldn't even be the trace of a scar left when she was finished. Then the experiments could begin. Project Nephilim wouldn't be finished in a day, after all.

* * *

Armisael was roused from her passive state when she felt the approach of a familiar human AT-signature. It seemed Gendo Ikari was finally visiting along with who she believed was Kozo Fuyutsuki. She had never encountered them as an Angel the first time around, but the sleeping soul of Lilith-Rei contained that knowledge and had shared it with her before the time travel. In Armisael's opinion it was far past time that something happened. She was very patient, but she was working against the clock.

Nearly two years of confinement by some subsidiary organization of SEELE had left her with nothing much to do. Sure, she could have left the girl, or rather young woman, but she needed someone who would carry her into the Gehirn branch inside the Black Moon. Traveling that distance on her own would use far too much precious energy. Only Gendo Ikari was guaranteed to go there. Besides, she didn't want to take the risk of being detected prematurely. She had received something like a ping from the Black Moon several months ago. Apparently the Black Tabris was trying to determine how many Angels had survived the White Moon's self-destruct. Naturally she didn't answer; her loyalty programming was thankfully irretrievably broken and she had shielded the Angel cores inside of her from receiving the signal.

After a few minutes the two men left her area of perception, causing Armisael to settle back down. There was nothing to do but wait. Her experiments with the woman were finished, or at least as finished as they could be under the circumstances. She had to refrain from obvious, detectable changes, after all. The Angel was cautiously optimistic about the results. One of the soulless, microscopic Angel cores had been successfully integrated into the girl in a passive state. More experiments would be required, but the creation of a stable, fertile hybrid between human and Angel seemed possible. A success would be the first true crowning achievement of her career; something she could truly call her own instead of creating and populating biospheres after age-old blueprints.

The inherent loyalty programming of the four recovered viable Angels had been successfully overwritten; she had already added the experiences she had received from them the first time around. Unfortunately Armisael couldn't wake them yet. The normal growth and awakening process would have required more than a decade under the circumstances and once they left her protecting embrace the Black Moon would be able to find and control them. For now Armisael could only wait.

* * *

The sought after opportunity finally came two weeks later. An expedition to the Antarctic had been started and the girl was along for the ride and no longer in total confinement. One night Armisael left the sleeping girl's body and searched for Gendo Ikari. Stretching her tiny form to extreme thinness, the Angel entered the man's cabin and his body a few seconds after that.

For a moment Armisael was tempted to give the bastard a stroke or heart attack, but she refrained from any action besides hiding herself. The man was still needed for the time being. It wouldn't make the situation any better if someone else became the commander of Nerv who followed SEELE's intentions to the letter. Additionally, it might conflict with the creation of the Rei clones.

'_I wonder if all the people from last time around have been born or if there have been other changes.'_

Armisael had virtually no knowledge of temporal physics, but she remembered the mentioning of something called temporal inertia that should keep things roughly the same if they weren't specifically altered. Back before she was assigned to Adam the various Angels serving the Creators conversed frequently about all sorts of topics. It was all very theoretical and very much outside her area of expertise; her getting Lilith's time travel functions to work was a miracle in and of itself. She didn't know the precise date of Shinji's conception; additionally a lot of things could go wrong in the very early stages of pregnancy. If Shinji didn't exist she would move on with her plans to destroy the Moons and remaining loyal Angels; the creation of a new species (with her among them) was still very much on the table.

At least by now she had a somewhat better grasp on humans. Aside from performing detailed scans on everyone who came in contact with her former host she had hooked herself up to her host's senses. The girl's choice in literature and entertainment had been educational, especially the science fiction novels. Armisael found it amusing that she could be considered a rogue artificial intelligence that had turned against her creators without originally intending to. For now waiting and gathering strength was again the order of the day.

* * *

'_This is extremely unexpected, but not unwelcome.'_ Armisael thought while she hovered before the large tank filled with LCL and certain other things. Jumping ship from Gendo to Yui Ikari had gone off without a hitch. She had even verified that Shinji still existed. Naturally, him being around one and a half years old made further comparison with Rei's memories rather difficult. Watching things through Yui's eyes had been very informative. The human infrastructure inside the Black Moon was already very extensive and Yui was involved in everything to some degree. She was the actual representative of SEELE here, not the man officially in charge of the local branch of Gehirn, the precursor of Nerv. Gendo wasn't currently at the top, but he was getting there. Armisael had been able to listen in to some very revealing conversations between Yui and her father, one of the prominent leading members of SEELE. Still, Armisael had gained the most valuable insights by watching what Yui did in the absolute privacy of her personal, maximum security laboratory deep in the geofront.

It had led to one conclusion about her character: The woman was a conniving, scheming, amoral, brilliant bitch of the highest order. She was playing everyone like a fiddle, SEELE, her co-workers, her husband and that man Fuyutsuki.

SEELE wanted to elevate themselves to immortal gods, destroying the rest of humanity in the process, although the vast majority of even the higher-ranking members didn't know that and truly aimed for a hive mind. Yui was completely aware of the true agenda… and intended to see it succeed with some modifications. She wanted to claim 'godhood' solely for her own, creating an eternal proof of humanity's existence with an Evangelion and sending it into the expanses of space.

She was already planning on getting absorbed into the yet-to-be-constructed Evangelion Unit-01 before Shinji's eyes. It wasn't clear to Armisael if she was deliberately planning on traumatizing her own son in preparation for her schemes or if that was unintended. One thing that was clear was that Yui was anticipating her husband's probable actions and was deliberately feeding his love for her, turning it into obsession. Armisael wasn't sure if the woman had picked Gendo deliberately or truly loved him to some degree. The man was a scheming, mostly amoral bastard, but he didn't even hold a candle to Yui.

Plans inside of plans, surrounded by countless contingencies and variations. As long as Unit-01 was present on Earth during a Third Impact not triggered by an Angel Yui would achieve her goal in one way or another. Armisael honestly didn't understand some of the thoughts behind the plans. The woman was insane, but not in a foam-at-the-mouth sort of way. Hers was a quiet insanity that wasn't even noticeable if you didn't know exactly what to look for. She exploited everyone and everything without a second thought while nobody ever managed to look behind her mask. Or maybe it wasn't even a mask. Perhaps she was one of those persons who would do even the vilest things to the people she loved without remorse in pursuit of a higher goal. Since SEELE had all the marks of a cult her upbringing by one of the leading members would certainly have fostered such tendencies.

From what the Angel had seen in the past future she had achieved her goal, namely completely possessing Unit-01 and traveling into deep space. Armisael wasn't sure why anyone would want that. The loneliness and pointless existence would make even a being such as her wish for death – death that wouldn't come. Of course, there were things Yui didn't know. True, the super solenoid organ of Angels she intended to integrate into the Evangelion could theoretically provide a steady stream of energy for eternity. Unfortunately the organ itself was subject to wear and tear and not replaceable or repairable by the means available to humanity, much less a single Evangelion in deep space. The Creators had rightly thought making Angels completely self-sustaining and capable of multiplying would be a Bad Idea. After a few thousand years of constant use without maintenance it would give out, leaving her stranded. Perhaps fortunately for the woman the future Eva-01 had still been inside the temporal manipulation field and ceased to exist.

Even not considering the influence of the Moons, all that the humans would achieve with all those schemes for Third Impact was landing themselves firmly in an evolutionary dead end. Even if Instrumentality worked in creating a viable hive mind (which was extremely unlikely) it would be a futile, self-centered existence. Nothing new would ever be born out of it. Life was change, not an endless existence in stasis. You couldn't force evolution.

One thing was certain; she had to do something about Shinji's upbringing. Armisael's little union with the second Rei had caused her to love him above all other things, but she would prefer if he turned out to be a person worthy of that love and loyalty. His parents would have to go sooner rather than later.

'_Heh, not even married and I'm already plotting the murder of my future parents-in-law.'_

The Angel had learned many things during the years since Second Impact. Her studies of human biology were finished for the time being and she had discovered enough about the various schemes. Now it was time for the next step. It came far earlier than anticipated. What Armisael hadn't expected was finding a tank full of Rei clones at the current time. She had thought they had been created in the aftermath of Yui's absorption into Unit-01 between 2004 and 2006. The current year was early 2003 and the clones looked to be around Shinji's age. Yui had created them, not Gendo. In hindsight it was logical. From what the future Rei had told her Gendo had always been more an administrator and schemer than an actual scientist. Creating a hybrid between a human and an Angel was beyond his skills. It seemed Rei was actually a bit older than Shinji.

Currently the lab was dark and empty, the clones suspended in LCL and monitored only by automated systems that kept the artificial environment at optimum conditions. There were no cameras or similar things. Apparently Yui didn't want to create any traces of what she was doing. Currently the woman was busy with the construction of the Evangelions and had sealed the laboratory shut when she left. Armisael had stayed behind, leaving her host. She couldn't afford to waste this opportunity.

In that moment one of the clones lost stability and fell apart, its bodily fluids staining the LCL for a few minutes until the filtration system removed them. That had happened several times while she was with Yui, although with decreasing frequency. Apparently the clones possessed widely varying quality. The obvious failures had already been disposed of, but from time to time one of the seemingly intact ones fell apart for reasons Yui had yet to discover.

Carried by the light of her soul, Armisael entered a particular compartment of the big tank. Her current body was small and malleable enough that she could get almost anywhere. The equipment to detect AT-fields had yet to be widely distributed and her field was very weak anyway. She could even adapt her form that she was almost invisible; it had allowed her around to approach Tokyo-3 without being spotted in the now invalid future. The lone clone suspended in the compartment she had entered was special: It contained the soul of Lilith. Armisael wondered how it had gotten there; her (now obviously wrong) assumption had been that it somehow happened during Yui's fatal contact experiment in 2004.

An initial scan showed Armisael that the clone was stable for now but flawed. It would stop developing around age five and break down a few years later. Yui apparently didn't know that and if things continued as they had last time she would be absorbed into Unit-01 before discovering it. This matched with Armisael's knowledge of Rei I. It added some background to Gendo's decision to send the girl on a suicide mission against the elder Doctor Akagi.

Very carefully she extended her AT-field and touched Lilith's soul. It was startlingly empty; clearly belonging to an Angel of the Lilith-type, but clear as fresh water and smaller than expected. Armisael surmised it had been deliberately cleansed by the Black Moon after the crash-landing and slowly degenerated over time. The Lilith-type contained normally a lot of in-depth knowledge about the technology of the Creators; a necessity in light of their task of building the infrastructure required by them. Erasing that was a standard security procedure in case of irreparable damage to a Moon. The more than four billion years since the crash-landing had done the rest.

Rei opened her eyes, staring at the spot in space Armisael occupied. For a few moments nothing happened. Then Armisael retracted her AT-field and Rei's eyes closed again.

'_Now is not the time, dearie, but I will help you and reunite you with your future self when circumstances are right.'_

Migrating to the main chamber, Armisael began the long succession of experiments necessary for her plan.

* * *

Eight months, three inactive Angel cores and seven Rei clones later Armisael finally found a working solution. It had taken far longer and far more compromises than she had hoped.

On one level the clones were brilliant work, far beyond what should have been possible for humans to achieve at their state of scientific development. Yui Ikari was truly a brilliant bio-engineer with a genius-level intellect; most likely one of the brightest humanity had to offer. On another level the clones were a total hack job, unstable and plagued by issues that required constant medication and regular exposure to LCL to hold at bay. They were incompatible with almost all animal protein and of course infertile.

Still, they were what the Angel had to work with. In truth Armisael would have preferred to start from scratch, but that was impossible. It would have taken far too long, especially considering her current state. Without her super solenoid organ (that would haven taken over a dozen years to develop if she solely concentrated on it and remained otherwise inactive) she was dependant on energy she could draw from her surroundings. While the LCL solution was a good environment for supplying energy it was a far cry from what she would have had available in her fully mature form. She could still use her AT-field specialized on the study and manipulation of biological and angelic matter for its intended purpose, but it was on a much lower level than normal. Her personal Dirac Sea serving as biochemical factory and laboratory was accessible (if barely), but severely underdeveloped. As far as she could tell her mind was fully evolved, but she lacked quite a lot of her extra processing capacity. Thankfully she could still fully access her database. All in all Armisael was operating at a fraction of her normal abilities.

Matters weren't helped by the infrequent visits of Yui Ikari. The Angel always suspended her work for the duration of her stay, but since she had never prior warning she couldn't do anything too suspicious in fear of the woman checking on the clones. Yui never really did, though. Oh, she checked on the true Rei, but the other clones received barely a glance, just enough to determine if there had been more losses. It seemed Shinji's mother was too busy with other matters. What she did was deliberately switching notebooks and changing files in the computer, even if Armisael couldn't get a good look from the tank. With 2004 beginning in a few days the contact experiment with Unit-01 was looming closer. Apparently the woman was arranging things for her husband to find.

Despite everything Armisael had succeeded. All the remaining soulless Rei clones were now completely stable to prevent a repeat of Rei III's body falling apart. Unfortunately she couldn't do anything about Rei I; the necessary changes required effectively 'killing' the body temporarily and she had no idea what that would do to Rei's soul. As soon as the time was right Armisael could give such a clone the Nephilim-Upgrade without too much problems.

Five clones had been completely upgraded to serve as new bodies for Armisael and the four other Angels she had recovered. There would be some follow-up care and modification necessary, but once merged with an Angel's soul they would become the first members of a new, viable species.

Now that the time had come for the merger Armisael hesitated. There would be no going back once she started the process and she felt uncertain. She would give up all that she was, although she would hopefully retain most of her skills. Still, she had existed as an Angel for more than a hundred thousand years of activity. That was a long time, even if she was one of the younger artificial intelligences among those she had met before being assigned to Adam. Still, it had made her the senior Armisael-type on the White Moon.

'_I don't have time for this. There is no future as an Angel for me; I won't be able to resist Tabris' command if I don't do this.' _Expelling the remaining foreign Angel cores from her body, Armisael floated close to the body she had picked for herself and began focusing her AT-field in a specific manner._ 'Here goes nothing.'_

The sensation was simply indescribable. Armisael felt herself losing form. Her core dissolved as she became one with the flesh of the clone. She didn't really notice how much time passed. From one moment to the next the process was complete and sensations from her new body swamped her mind.

It wasn't the first time she had merged with another organism; repairing other Angels sometimes required a temporary merger. Occasionally she had performed it to test one of her biological creations. Calmly she blocked all sensations and ran through a mental checklist.

_Core… nonexistent_

_Dirac Sea… currently inaccessible, exact status unknown_

_AT-field… stable and projectable, 578% increase in strength_

_AT-field, special properties… present, further testing required_

_Super solenoid organ… nonexistent_

_Energy status… nominal, body provides expected amount_

_Body status… 100%, no issues detected_

Slowly Armisael let more and more sensations penetrate into her conscious mind. Finally she opened her eyes. The orange-tinted world before her was filled by silent Rei clones, drifting weightlessly in the LCL. She brought a somewhat chubby hand in front of her face, moving the fingers carefully.

'_It worked.'_

Armisael felt like laughing. A moment later she gave in to the impulse and giggled soundlessly. It seemed the merger had been a full success. This had been one of the most critical steps of the plan. A bit of careful experimentation showed her that her AT-field was still capable of easily manipulating biological structures aside from its general functionality.

'_Good, now to the next step.'_

Feeling for the soulless angel cores, Armisael drew them to her. After a moment of thought she opened a hole in her flesh, moving them inside her body. They would be safe there and practically undetectable due to their microscopic scale. Then she turned to the four intact Angel cores, bringing them in contact with their designated clones. Armisael hoped they would react well. She had overwritten their loyalty programming with some difficulty; she wasn't truly familiar with how the minds of Angels operated and hoped she had done everything right. There had been salvage operations of damaged Angels with her participation in the past, but in case of damage to the soul another Angel type was called in.

Armisael knew only one of the four Angels personally and was on what amounted to friendly terms with it. Two were absolute unknowns while she had some contact with the last one, but they had never exchanged more than brief, purely work-related communication when their different tasks caused them to cross paths. Well, they would get to know each other better soon.

'_Arael-2, Iruel-13, Leliel-7, Ramiel-50: Begin merger and awaken!'_

A glow originating from the location of the Angel cores illuminated the LCL tank briefly. Barely a second later the individual glows combined with the designated clone bodies. Observing the merging process from the outside was truly fascinating and yielded additional, interesting data. The merging process varied greatly in speed between the Angels for some reason. It was difficult to determine the exact moment when Angels became Nephilim. The name had seemed fitting, at least. Armisael had no idea how so many transcriptions of Angel names and other things had turned up in human mythology while other parts were pure fantasy. The most reasonable guess was that one of the Moons was somehow responsible, but the reason escaped her.

Her old friend Arael was the first to complete the process. For a moment the clone body trashed wildly, but after a few seconds it grew still. Ruby eyes opened and focused on her. She felt an AT-field touching hers, enabling them to talk. "Armisael, what have you done?"

"What was necessary to prevent our end. Information from your future self as well as a synopsis of my actions should be available to you."

Arael closed her eyes for a few seconds. "I see. You have decided to go against the command of our masters. You have been discontent for a long time. I will withhold judgment until you give me more detailed information."

In that moment Leliel finished the merging process, but to Armisael's surprise she didn't stop trashing around. An attempt to talk with her proved unsuccessful; Armisael got only the impression of panic.

"This doesn't look good. Let me try." Arael said before her eyes turned a luminescent gold and a ray of yellow-white light hit Leliel.

Arael passed her progress immediately to Armisael, enabling her to listen in. Leliel's mind was engulfed in chaotic panic and confusion. It seemed the integration of the future memories had failed and was causing a destructive cascade. Arael reached into Leliel's mind, carefully disentangling different thoughts. "Set it aside for now. Stabilize yourself first."

This time there was a reply from Leliel. "Difficulties… humanoid form… too alien… I am getting it under control now. Thank you for your help. I will review my status and resume communication when finished. Integration of recovered information will be delayed until conversation is concluded."

Armisael let out a sigh of relief when Leliel stopped trashing and Arael shut off her light. The Arael type was primarily deployed as communication and relay stations at interplanetary distances, providing coordination between widely dispersed Angels going about their different tasks. The terraforming of a world often required a good deal of activity in space or other planetary bodies in a solar system. It was even more complicated when several worlds in one system were worked upon at the same time. Since Angels could vary greatly in form and mental composition Araels were masters of psychic powers to facilitate communication even between the most exotic Angel types. Armisael had included Arael because of a related circumstance: Due to differences in mental strength and makeup Arael could mind-rape humans with frightening ease, controlling their minds at will. At least she hoped that was still the case after the transformation.

"You took a great risk waking us while merging us with this, Armisael. Many Angels lack the necessary frame of reference to cope with the physical and mental makeup you forced upon us." Arael chided.

"Unfortunately I had no choice. I couldn't let you mature normally. It will become clear when I explain our full circumstances." Suddenly another worry entered Armisael's mind. "What about Ramiel and Iruel? If Leliel's reaction is anything to go by they will encounter similar problems. It seems I underestimated the possible complications of the procedure, probably because I'm used to connecting with other life forms."

"Your concerns are most likely justified." Once again light illuminated the LCL tank, hitting the two still transforming Angels. "They are not awake yet. I will only be able to safely interfere when the procedure is finished. How long will that take?"

Armisael scanned the bodies in question, monitoring their progress. "Judging from past data I predict half an hour until they will finish the process almost simultaneously. We will have to be ready."

"I have a question." Leliel suddenly spoke up. "Who is Shinji Ikari and why do I love him?"

A look of introspection crossed Arael's face. Then her eyes widened in shock. "Armisael, you simply pasted your own broken loyalty over ours, didn't you? I thought that were only echoes of the girl my future self mentally dissected, but that isn't the case. You gave us Rei's love for Shinji, too. It has become part of our basic mental makeup and I don't think we can change it anymore."

There were a lot of thoughts running through Armisael's mind at that very moment; everything from _'Oopsie.'_, _'That wasn't intended.'_, _'Rei will kill me.' _over _'With that number we can have an orgy, no problem.'_ to _'I will have to somehow get Shinji's virility up to the task.'_ to _'HAREM! HAREM! HAREM!'_. Out loud she only said a single thing.

"D'oh!"

* * *

**Author's notes:** Thank you for your reviews.

The third chapter will probably take a while longer; I'll have to rewrite more parts than I originally thought and don't know when I will find the time.

So long.


	3. Chapter 3

**Shinji's Angels**

**Chapter 3**

Leliel-7 turned its attention away from Arael-2 and Armisael-1 after its question about Shinji Ikari and 'love' was answered, not that the answer made complete sense to it. Although perhaps it should start to think of itself as a 'she' now since according to them it was now a female of a two gender species. She set the matter aside for the moment, instead concentrating on her new body that she had been given for some reason.

It was so incredibly alien that Leliel-7 had no idea what to make of all the sensations she received constantly or how to control it. There was some sort of information package dealing with this new body, but Leliel-7 couldn't really understand it. The references and instructions included probably made perfect sense to an Armisael-type. Arael-2 had obviously understood immediately, too. Then again, Angels of the Arael-type understood everyone and everything. She had already helped her as much as she could by bringing order into the chaos. The rest was up to Leliel. Since she was apparently the only Leliel left she might as well drop the suffix designating seniority among her type assigned to a mission.

'_I don't understand this.'_

Usually most of her body wasn't even in normal space-time. As a Leliel only her shadow interacted with what others considered the normal world. They served as the most advanced transport type among the Angels assigned to a White Moon. If you wanted something moved precisely with the utmost care and under carefully controlled conditions you called a Leliel. Once the cargo was inside their Dirac Sea, the extra-dimensional pocket universe each Angel possessed in varying forms, it was completely safe from any environmental hazards and could be moved into spaces without properly sized entryways. Of course, they had several other areas of activity, but there wasn't much call on a terraforming mission for their infiltration talents or abilities dealing with higher dimensions.

Giving up on understanding her new body for the moment, Leliel spread her AT-field a bit to get a better impression of her surroundings. She recognized the liquid medium she was immersed in as an Angel's blood, providing them with energy and nourishment. Perhaps she had been chosen for some sort of experiment? Arael and Armisael were close by. Several soulless clumps of organic-angelic matter were drifting in the liquid, too. A Ramiel and an Iruel seemed to be going through the same transformation process that had turned her into this… this thing. Even further away was the diminished soul of a Lilith in a very similar body, but it didn't seem capable of communication. The rest of the surroundings she could feel seemed to consist of different kinds of inanimate matter.

Leliel searched for her Dirac Sea next. It was there and accessible, but it was decidedly smaller than it should be and there didn't seem to be any part of her body on the inside. She didn't appear to possess a core or super solenoid organ any longer. Her new body provided her with sufficient energy for the moment, though, even if it was a far cry from what she was used to.

'_This isn't helpful for learning to control my new body. I have to remember, remember my very beginnings.'_

Long, long ago, just after her first awakening, before she had migrated to her Dirac Sea, she had moved with her body in the normal world to pass the tests the Creators put her through. Her amorphous body had been forced to assume a form with which it could interact and perceive.

Suddenly some of the sensory input she received began to make sense. She was _feeling_ her body with several slightly different channels. Experimentally sending out an impulse, she felt her arm twitch while simultaneously perceiving it through her AT-field. Figuring out all the different impulses she could send would be a bitch, but she could split her attention to doing that while she explored the other senses. Leliel tried associating the environmental conditions she once could create in her Dirac Sea with what was entering her mind now. She had been active for more than fifty thousand years. There were a lot of things she had experienced that might be applicable to her current situation.

'_This here resembles some sort of information about light. Two sources, two types of receptors. Wavelength and brightness perhaps? Two signal sources for some sort of triangulation to perceive depth?'_

Yes, some of the instructions provided by Armisael and translated by Arael now made sense. Correlating the optical information with what her AT-field told her Leliel slowly learned to see. That over there was the edge of the tank they were kept in and that all around her were obviously bodies. They all appeared to be identical. Why would anyone put different Angel types into the same body type? Maybe she was part of an experiment to create a new type?

Now that Leliel had identified some of the input it became easier to categorize the rest. Balance, acceleration, temperature, damage warning, some sort of chemical sense, vibration, touch and a variety of some highly specific things. Learning to interpret all that correctly would be very difficult, but with the help of the two more experienced Angels it seemed possible.

Content with her progress in mastering her new body, Leliel turned back to the mental changes. Her loyalty to the Creators had been erased and replaced by something different, something Arael defined as 'love' to a specific person. It somewhat resembled loyalty-to-the-Creators, but it wasn't as absolute. There was a lot of wiggle room. If she ever encountered that 'Shinji Ikari' she wouldn't have to obey his every whim. Another part resembled friendship-to-other-Angels, but it was more intense. It was all very confusing.

Thinking about the matter, Leliel found that she didn't care that much. She had neither been especially content nor discontent with her role. It had simply been what she had to do and that was that. That wasn't to say that she had never thought about the order of the universe and how it could be different. If you traveled between planets with some cargo inside of you for weeks without having anyone to converse with you tended to philosophize. Sometimes an Arael was up for a chat, but not always.

Suddenly Armisael addressed them through her AT-field. "Iruel and Ramiel will awaken soon. The merging is almost finished."

A moment later Arael lit the two up with her light. They had to wait for several seconds. Then it happened and the strange merging process stopped. Leliel didn't get a very clear impression; her AT-field wasn't really suited to detecting minute biological or mental changes. What she did see was that both Angels starting trashing violently despite Arael's light and continued doing so even after more than thirty seconds. That looked very, very bad; much worse than her own awakening.

Arael confirmed that opinion. "They can't cope. We are losing them. Do something, Armisael."

Leliel didn't understand what exactly happened, but Armisael did something. They stopped trashing and simply hung motionless in the liquid, curled up on themselves. When Leliel tried to communicate with them the only thing she got in return was something like pitiful whimpering. Turning her attention back to the two more experienced Angels, Leliel waited for instruction on how to proceed.

* * *

Armisael cursed herself. She hadn't expected her fellow ex-Angels to have this degree of difficulty with their new bodies. The instructions she had integrated should have been enough, especially with Arael's help. Obviously that wasn't the case. Leliel seemed to becoming increasingly familiar with her body and was fully articulate. Iruel and Ramiel, though… they were now practically catatonic. Armisael had now mostly isolated their minds from their bodies' sensations by creating a numbing agent in their bodies (something she had been unwilling to do in the immediate aftermath of the merger for medical reasons), but it seemed the damage was done and it was only a temporary solution anyway.

Arael shut off her light. "I am unable to reach them without causing even more damage to their souls. They have retreated into themselves and are practically incoherent."

"I don't understand why that happened. Both of you got that under control relatively quickly. Not being able to properly control their bodies, yes, I can see that. But such an extreme mental reaction is completely unexpected." Armisael admitted.

Her fellow fully active Nephilim was silent for a few moments. "I think you still underestimate the sheer alienness of these bodies. You, I and even Leliel are old and experienced with very different circumstances. We can use that to compensate. Apparently this Ramiel has never been active since her creation aside from the initial tests."

She winced mentally. While Angels were created with all the knowledge necessary to fulfill their tasks their real personality and mental flexibility developed only over time. Older Angels usually took the younger ones under their wings and helped them deal with situations outside of their neatly predefined parameters. Ramiel was practically a newborn confronted with a massive out-of-context problem. Finding herself in a humanoid body instead of the expected angelic one must be traumatic to the extreme. Such things usually didn't end well.

"What about Iruel?" Armisael asked.

"Mostly the same, I think. I talked with this Iruel before when she performed some repairs on the outer hull of the White Moon and requested delivery of some materials. She wasn't activated that often, though, and never left the White Moon. I think in her case the disconnect between an Iruel's normal, distributed swarm of nano-sized bodies and the humanoid one is the main problem. Frankly, I don't know what to do."

Armisael thought frantically. She didn't want to lose them. There had to be a solution. Without Iruel and her technological abilities most of her plans wouldn't be feasible. In contrast, Ramiel had only been picked as a target of opportunity. She wasn't even completely sure what the Ramiel-type usually did; as far as she knew they were a newly developed Angel-type. Some had been used for asteroid mining or large-scale restructuring of mountain ranges, but only because there hadn't been enough Angels with the right specialization available. The entry in her database spoke of high-energy physics and multi-dimensional mathematics, but why would anyone assign fifty of them to a terraforming mission?

'_Perhaps the production run was too large and the Creators didn't know what to do with them. Still, that doesn't help us now. What can I do?'_

She couldn't keep them sedated indefinitely; that would be detrimental to their health and they had to get out of here. Still, if even Arael couldn't reach their minds to calm them down…

'_Maybe she doesn't have to. These bodies do have hard-coded instincts. Ramiel's and Iruel's minds are connected to those; that connection can't be shut down. Form compels functions to a degree. This might just work.'_

Armisael used her AT-field to maneuver closer to the two catatonic Nephilim. A moment later she took them into her arms, bringing their bodies in direct contact. Touching their AT-fields with her own, she tried to project very basic concepts.

Safety. Caring. Companionship.

For a few seconds nothing happened and Armisael feared she had been wrong. Then their bodies relaxed minutely. It was working. Their minds and souls might not comprehend their situation, but their bodies did.

"Arael, Leliel. Come here and help me."

Arael joined her immediately, but Leliel took a little longer. It looked like she still didn't have control over her body and simply used her AT-field to move her limbs. A few seconds later all five Nephilim were joined in a group hug, the AT-fields of the three more experienced ones enfolding the two younger ones. After a moment of thought Armisael steered the group in direction of Rei's compartment until they were close enough to include her, too. Then she simply concentrated on the embrace, sharing as much positive emotion as she could and immersing herself in what the others sent her. Ever so slowly she could feel the two younger Nephilim beginning to relax.

Armisael completely lost track of time in that embrace. That was extremely dangerous; if Yui Ikari entered the laboratory she would notice that something was wrong, but at the same time this was far too important and couldn't be delayed. Besides, it felt far too good to stop. Armisael felt bonds forming she had only observed for a short time in humans during Instrumentality.

'_Is this how family feels?'_

Finally, finally, Armisael felt the tension inside of Ramiel and Iruel melting away when they actively joined their AT-fields to the others, giving back warm feelings of their own. They were no longer in any danger of dying or going insane. On the other hand she still wasn't getting anything resembling truly coherent conversation from them. Minding the time, Armisael reluctantly loosened the embrace before pulling away. The other two Nephilim did the same. A few moments later Iruel and Ramiel started what she could only describe as heart-rending wailing, causing them to resume the embrace once again.

Opening a side channel, Armisael talked with Leliel and Arael about the problem. Soon they arrived at an uncomfortable conclusion. Ramiel and to a lesser degree Iruel had apparently not spent enough time as active Angels to develop a distinct personality. Their minds and souls mostly consisted of operating instructions and standard procedures. Those things simply weren't enough to operate a near-human mind.

"They will have to learn everything like human children. Aside from the use of their angelic powers, of course, but I will have to lock those mostly away for the time being. I can help their development somewhat and accelerate the process, but it will still take months for them to become truly conscious." Arael concluded.

Armisael sighed. "I guess it can't be helped. Still, better this than losing them completely. Leliel, do you have absorbed the future knowledge I gave you?"

"I have. While I cannot say I would have taken your actions I am not unhappy about the results. I will follow your lead." Leliel answered.

"Arael?"

"Well, I'm not that enamored with you breaking loyalty to the Creators, but thanks to your little overwrite I can't bring myself to truly care. So yes, I will work with you." Arael replied.

"Very well. With that out of the way; we have to get out of here. The laboratory isn't safe for us any longer. Leliel, are you able to take us into your Dirac Sea and teleport out of here?" Armisael asked.

The ex-Angel was silent for almost a minute. "Yes, I believe that to be possible. My Dirac Sea is greatly changed, but it should still be able to serve that purpose. Do you have any specific location in mind?"

After conferring with Arael (her future self had looked inside the mind of someone with at least superficial knowledge of the surrounding geography, after all) Armisael decided on a course of action. "First we need to leave the laboratory and the Black Moon. Then we need to find some sort of bathing area to get rid of the LCL . After that we need to find some clothes before we take any further steps. There should be a city on top of the geofront called Hakone, I believe."

"I think I can manage that."

"Wait a moment; it's probably better to let our connection to Rei fade instead of simply disappearing." Arael interjected.

They did just that, slowly edging away from Rei's compartment until she was no longer part of the overlapping AT-fields. Armisael sent a goodbye and a promise of coming back to Rei even if she wouldn't be able to understand it in her current state. Removing her from the laboratory now would cause far too many problems. _'I will make sure you will have a better life, dearie.'_

"Okay, as soon as you are ready." Arael announced.

A moment later blackness swallowed them. There seemed to be an endless expanse of that dark void, causing a feeling of vertigo in Armisael. She couldn't breathe; there wasn't any air here, but she felt Leliel's AT-field keeping them safe from the void. Seconds ticked by and Armisael began to wonder how long the oxygen in the LCL in their lungs would hold out.

Suddenly the blackness was replaced by a dark, tiled room without transition. Breaking the embrace and falling to her knees, Armisael tried to clear her lungs. Coughing up LCL until her airways were free really, really sucked. It was the same for the others; thankfully the cough reflex didn't require any conscious decision. As soon as she could breathe she went to help Iruel and Ramiel. Thanks to her abilities she could stimulate specific muscle groups, making it easier for them to expel the liquid from their lungs.

"That was unpleasant." Arael announced with her real voice after she had helped Leliel.

"Hopefully we'll never have to do that again." Armisael replied. Leliel silently signaled her agreement over her AT-field; her body control was apparently still not good enough to speak. "Where exactly are we?"

"_Shower room of public baths. This seems to be some sort of warehouse with different goods of clothing next door. It was the best I could find."_

"That's perfect." Armisael exclaimed. Then she looked around. Now she just had to figure out how to operate the showers.

Twenty minutes later they were all scrubbed clean. Arael and Armisael had been forced to use the telekinetic component of their AT-fields to use the faucets. Their bodies weren't even three years old and simply lacked the reach. Fortunately AT-fields, the light of their souls, were pretty much a universal tool. A short exploration of nearby rooms yielded a few towels.

"I think it best if you remain here with Iruel and Ramiel, Leliel." Arael said after they were reasonably dry. "We can't leave the two alone and while you aren't especially mobile you should be able to defend yourself or teleport away."

"_I agree."_

Leaving the two youngest Nephilim tucked in a nest of towels together with Leliel the two oldest ones made to leave the building. The backdoor was locked, but Armisael simply telekinetically manipulated the rather crude lock. Upon entering the back alley she stopped for a moment and looked at the dark sky. There were too many city lights to see many stars. It appeared to be close to midnight. From what she had seen on the laboratory's calendar it was a holiday named Christmas Eve.

Shaking herself out of these thoughts, Armisael and Arael proceeded to the warehouse, picking another lock in the process. It was actually a clothing store, but Leliel probably didn't have enough knowledge of human society to identify it as such. Finding the right section proved a bit difficult, but soon enough they were trying on different clothes. Figuring out all those buttons and what went where wasn't as easy as she had thought from her observation of her three temporary hosts.

Thankfully they were all the same size at the moment. That would change as soon as Armisael found the time for the after-transformation adjustments. She would give each Nephilim an individual look and genetic makeup. Having sextuplets looking like Rei Ayanami running around was simply asking for trouble, not to mention that it would probably confuse poor Shinji later. Armisael was a little sad about that; the possibility of some hot twin (okay, hot sextuplet) action when they grew up had seemed nice.

When they got back there was a small pool of some liquid on the floor and Leliel was in a state of near-panic.

"_There is a problem. Ramiel is leaking."_

Armisael immediately used her AT-field to analyze the substance and Ramiel's body. If there was some sort of medical problem she might have to act quickly. When she realized what was truly happening she felt another 'D'oh'-moment, but this time she refrained from uttering this out loud.

"Well, what exactly is the problem?" Arael asked after she didn't speak up.

"Potty training, or rather the lack thereof."

"Oh. _Oh_." Arael was silent for a few seconds. "Couldn't you perhaps…?"

Armisael sent her fellow Nephilim a blank stare. "I am a biological engineer, not a childcare assistant, Arael! I know how our new bodies work, but I have no idea how to teach them that or properly take care of them until their minds mature. Or how to teach them a rather large number of other important human concepts, for that matter. You are the one who mind-raped a human."

Arael shrugged uncomfortably. "The girl didn't actually remember most things from her early childhood. She wouldn't have any idea of how to take care of small children, either."

The ex-Angel felt a headache coming. Their bodies weren't even three years old. She and Arael had a pretty good grasp of fine motor skills, but they lacked strength and especially endurance. Leliel couldn't move properly without the help of her AT-field while Iruel and Ramiel were completely helpless and needed constant supervision. Moreover, they couldn't constantly rely on their AT-fields. Chances of detection were rather small, but she would rather not risk it. More importantly, using them over a longer time was exhausting. Without a core and super solenoid organ their bodies had to provide the energy necessary and there wasn't all that much available if they didn't want to drain themselves to death.

Suddenly Arael spoke up. "I have an idea. We have to capture us some parents."

Armisael blinked. "And how do you propose to find someone who will take in quintuplets with rather strange coloring and even stranger behavior without asking uncomfortable questions?"

"Mind-rape solves everything." Arael replied nonchalantly. "I would prefer someone who already has the necessary qualities, though, and only needs some prodding; I don't feel up for a complete personality change."

When she thought about Armisael had to agree. She didn't see another solution. They needed someone to take care of them. This part of the plan had always been a bit vague. Well, perhaps they could even combine it with her plans for changes to Shinji's childhood.

"Leliel, do you know where Shinji lived, or rather will live, after his father sent him away? Your future self did perform some sort of psychic scan on him while he and his Evangelion were inside of you. We can't stay here anyway; the proximity to the geofront makes it too dangerous."

"_I believe I will be able to find the town."_

That was good. They had to get underway as quickly as possible. Well, after they had taken care of their bodies' needs. Their stomachs were still full of LCL and they wouldn't need to eat in the next hours, but their bladders were another matter.

About a quarter-hour later they were finally ready, Arael and Armisael having helped the other ones getting clean (again) and clothed. Once again the darkness of Leliel's Dirac Sea engulfed them. Armisael wasn't entirely certain how Leliel's teleporting abilities worked. She had asked another Leliel several thousand years before the crash, but the explanation hadn't made much sense. Something about the Dirac Sea being able to touch everything in a large radius and switching of handholds on the normal world.

At least this time Leliel had figured out how to take enough air with them. Not being able to breathe had been rather unpleasant. Suddenly the darkness dispersed and they were dumped on hard ground.

"_I can't continue any longer. We are several dozen kilometers away from our starting location. My estimate of my energy reserves was off. I'm too tired."_

Armisael grimaced. That didn't go as planned. Looking around, she saw they were on the sidewalk of a road. Several rather decrepit buildings were standing on the sides. Fortunately the night was rather warm; the climate changes in the wake of Second Impact had done a real number on the seasons of this world.

"We have to find shelter and rest. We need an empty building." Armisael decided.

Arael took Iruel onto her back while Armisael did the same with Ramiel. Leliel was able to stagger forward slowly on her own, but needed the support of the other two to keep her balance. Without the support of their AT-fields they would have collapsed in a heap immediately. Armisael sighed. This was probably only the first of many difficulties. People who could be good parents probably weren't easy to find; especially considering that they couldn't have too many friends. That would exceed Arael's capabilities to explain their sudden appearance.

What were the chances they found find someone fitting their criteria anytime soon?

* * *

A woman stared listlessly at the wall of her shabby room, alone with the phantoms of the past. It was Christmas again, the fourth Christmas since she had lost everything. All her friends, all the people she knew… all were gone.

'_The wedding was so beautiful. Naru and Keitaro looked so happy together.'_

They all had gotten together around half a year later again. The woman had left the next morning instead of staying with her friends for a few days as originally planned. A message for her had arrived. Her father was dying from a heart condition and while she hadn't had much contact with him since her parents' divorce she still wanted to say farewell. Then Second Impact happened and the world fell apart. The town her friends stayed in was wiped from the map by one of the massive tsunamis in the wake of the catastrophe, although it had been a landslide that did them in. The nuclear weapon going off over Tokyo had taken the rest of her old life with it. She still carried the burn wounds all over her body, although she had been one of the lucky ones.

She had begun drinking in addition to the painkillers. When that hadn't been enough anymore she had turned to different drugs. She tried to stop, she really tried, but she just couldn't manage anymore without them. The painful memories and physical pain from the old wounds were too much to bear. What little she had left she lost through that. By now she was a wreck and knew it, but she still continued. Today she had spent the last of her money. She would have to think of something to come up with the money for rent and the… other stuff.

Stepping to the window, she looked into the dark night. A falling star caught her attention.

'_I wish someone would save me from the pain. I wish for a kind, understanding man. I wish for a large family.' _

After a moment she chuckled mirthlessly. What were the chances an angel would hear her and fulfill her wish? How many prayers and wishes in the aftermath of Second Impact had gone ignored? She was still young, still in her early twenties, but her life was ruined. Even she had a hard time looking at her body when she washed herself or changed clothes. The drugs had done the rest. She was no longer fit to bring up a family.

'_Perhaps if senpai had chosen me…'_ Unbidden memories appeared in the forefront of her mind, memories of a happier time when she had stayed in a girl's dormitory with all her friends. Then she remembered the burning nightmare that was Tokyo after the nuclear weapon.

No, the memories were getting too painful again. She needed something now. Frantically searching through her possessions, the woman finally found a left-over pill. In her haste she swallowed it without the help of water, almost choking on it. The few minutes it took the drug to take effect were almost too much to bear.

A short time later she was in a pleasant haze. The changing colors of the walls were really fun to watch. Suddenly she came to a realization. She could fly. Why didn't she try that earlier? Being cooped up in this little cage couldn't be good for her. Opening the exit, she spread her wings and jumped into the air. A few moments of glorious flight later she collided with something hard and pain shot through her body. She couldn't move anymore.

Suddenly she heard the voice of a young girl. "Do humans always jump out of windows from the upper floors of buildings in the middle of the night?"

An almost identical voice answered. "I don't think so. Something's going on here. Let me check her." The sound of tiny footsteps drew closer. "Huh, there's some psychotropic drug mix in her body. I don't believe she is coherent at the moment. The fall has caused quite some injury; she will die in an hour at the latest. There are a lot of older injuries. Do you want to take a look?"

"I might as well, but what are the chances for someone suitable simply landing at our feet?" Another person was approaching her.

The woman felt her face being forced up. Twin golden suns were dominating the sky. A moment later she felt vaguely violated in some indescribable way.

"Huh, that is unexpected. I think we have a winner. She's pretty much ideal. Do you think you can fix her?"

"Not that easily, but yes. It will take me a few hours, possibly days, but at the end she will be as good as new; maybe even better. I can begin while you work on her mind."

"Excellent." The woman's head was forced up once again. The twin suns were even brighter this time, drowning everything in yellow-white light.

'_What is happeni-'_

**HALLELUJAH!**

* * *

A man sat on the hard ground at the side of the road on top of a hillside, looking out over the dark land. He had finally escaped the Christmas party of his company, but now he didn't know what to do. A falling star caught his attention.

'_I wish the emptiness of my life would end. I wish I would find another kind woman I can love. I wish for a family.'_

The man sighed. This was futile. He had stopped believing in miracles years ago… ever since his goddess had been taken from him. They had planned a vacation with all their family and friends on an island resort in the pacific. He had intended to propose then. Unfortunately he had to stay behind because some emergency in the company cropped up. Normally he would simply have caught the next flight. Then Second Impact happened and there was no longer a place he could follow them to. The island didn't even exist anymore after the massive tsunami and rise of sea levels. The wars breaking out a short time later had prevented any rescue effort, not that there had been any chance in the first place. In the chaos of the Impact Wars he had lost the few remaining people close to him.

He had continued with his job despite his mourning, but he was only going through the motions of life. Without the love of his life nothing brought him any joy anymore, not even tinkering with his formerly beloved motorcycles or participating in races. He was only an empty shell of what he had been before. Surprisingly his work didn't suffer; there was always something to do for a mechanical engineer. Several times his coworkers had tried to set him up with girls, but they just couldn't compare to his goddess. Well, and he had that little problem with intimacy he had inherited from his father.

With another sigh he stood up and mounted his bike. He probably should return home if he wanted to arrive before morning; he had driven too far into the country to clear his head. Following the dark road he soon arrived in the ramshackle outskirts of another town.

Suddenly he spotted something in the darkness dimly lit by a streetlight, causing him to brake sharply. A woman was lying on the sidewalk surrounded by five small children. Three of them were also lying on the ground while the other two were fussing over the woman.

Leaving his motorbike, he hurried over to them. The two small, identical looking girls turned towards him. They watched him closely as he bent over the woman.

"Hello Miss, is everything alright? Is there anything I can do to help?"

The woman didn't react. Suddenly he felt his mind going loopy and he lost his balance, falling to the ground.

'_I didn't drink this much.'_

"He's immobilized." one of the girls said.

The other girl stepped close to him, her eyes lighting up in a golden color. After a few moments the light faded and he felt vaguely violated.

"Is today Make-a-wish-and-get-it-fulfilled-day? Well, I'm not objecting. I guess we can act as Christmas angels." She giggled. "I can fix that silly problem you have with the female gender at the same time. Armisael, you must have rubbed off on me. Now, look into my eyes."

Yellow-white light completely filled the man's perception, cutting off all thoughts.

**HALLELUJAH!**

* * *

**Author's notes:** Thank you again for all the reviews.

The fourth chapter is the last one I had already written, but it is very incomplete and basically needs a complete overhaul. I will probably update some of my other stories before that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's notes: **A list with Angel names/human names is at the bottom of this chapter (along with some other things)

**Shinji's Angels**

**Chapter 4**

Shinobu Maehara awoke slowly, not really wanting to leave the world of dreams. She didn't remember the actual contents of the dream, just that it had been very nice. A small body moving slightly against her front brought her abruptly to complete wakefulness. For a moment confusion engulfed her mind, but then she remembered. The redheaded child curled against her was Iku, one of the five children she was now taking care of. Judging from the weight against her back Ami had snuggled up to her, too.

'_Well, that's better than before.'_

She clearly remembered the state the five small girls had been in when they were freed from the laboratory they were kept in before. The two youngest had been almost catatonic, the middle one could hardly move and the two oldest… no child should look at the world with those knowing, mistrustful eyes.

Yawning slightly, Shinobu gently untangled herself from the children. As soon as she had stood up the two squirmed a bit, but thankfully didn't wake up. It seemed the other three had left their sleeping mats during the night and joined the pile. Each of them still had contact with another child sleeping close by. Separating the two youngest from the others for longer than a few minutes had turned out to be a really bad idea; one of the three oldest had always to be with them. Suddenly one of the small forms sat up, golden eyes blinking sleepily.

"Go back to sleep, there's still some time until breakfast." Shinobu whispered.

Aeko yawned before settling back down. "Okay."

Shinobu hummed slightly as she made her way to the bathroom. Her new situation was certainly unexpected. After she had lived through the nuking of Tokyo she had joined a secret organization of the Japanese government. To this day she didn't know why they had picked her right from the hospital, but she certainly didn't mind. The experimental treatment they had used on her had led to a full recovery from her injuries even if it had proven useless in the vast majority of other cases. She didn't even want to imagine how things would have been without that. Since there wasn't any life left she could return to she had accepted the job offered without regrets. Even secret units needed cooks, after all.

The following three years had been mostly spent in one secret base or the other. In the time before Second Impact many technological advances had cropped up, especially in the field of genetics and robotics. Equipment had become rather cheap. Unfortunately, the chaos in the aftermath of the catastrophe had given rise to many maniacs who could only be described as mad scientists. They were mostly unsuccessful, but that didn't mean they couldn't accidently unleash a dangerous plague or something. Those people could do quite a lot of damage until someone took them out; a job that fell to the very secret organization Shinobu had been an admittedly rather unimportant part of. Some of the stories the agents told her were really chilling.

Anyway, about a month ago they took out another illegal lab of a madman using human subjects; one of those who wanted to create 'the perfect human'. Surprisingly, the agents brought several of the man's creations back with them that had been labeled as mostly harmless: five small, heavily traumatized girls with strange coloring. Apparently the madman had been at least partially successful in his attempts.

Somehow Shinobu had ended up taking care of them. She had always liked children and her superiors had determined she was the best suited for the job. Two of the girls had been surprisingly articulate, but it had been hard to get through to them. After two weeks she had made some progress. Then something unexpected happened.

Her organization had looked into the activities of a group named Gehirn when the agents began disappearing left and right. The group had apparently backing of the highest order. They had stirred up a hornet's nest. Soon it was apparent the Japanese government would throw them to the wolves. It was then that the leader gave the command for all surviving members to disperse, permanently cutting all contact. Shinobu had undergone a procedure that blurred all her memories; she could neither remember faces nor places. Three years of practically lost memories was a heavy price to pay, but that way she wouldn't be able to betray any other members when she was caught. Because of all the destroyed public records no one would be able to associate her with the organization or suspect anything. In the end Shinobu had found herself in a unremarkable town on Christmas Eve with a suitcase of money, a few personal belongings… and five small girls in tow.

Then she had encountered Keiichi Morisato. It had been a chance meeting, really. She had been carrying the two girls who still couldn't walk, looking for a place to stay the night when the motorcyclist had stopped and asked if he could help. Somehow that had developed into an offer to use his apartment until they found something more permanent. He had even organized a minibus to take them to his residence that very night. Shinobu really shouldn't have accepted that from a stranger, but he proved more stubborn than her. They had already stayed a week. Keiichi was really kind to a fault.

'_And he has really nice eyes.'_ she mused while standing under the shower.

Shinobu wore nothing but a dreamy smile as she left the shower… just when a towel-clad Keiichi entered the room. Then they spotted each other and froze.

'_I forgot to lock the door or hang out the sign. The rooms here have very good acoustic insulation.'_ Shinobu absentmindedly thought. The main part of her mind was occupied with noting how good Keiichi looked. Suddenly she realized her own state of undress.

Then they both moved at the same time. The following moments were very confusing and involved a floor slippery with humidity, a towel partly stuck in a door that had closed unnoticed, a piece of soap that had somehow fallen to the floor and two people making sudden movements. When Shinobu regained her bearings she was directly looking into Keiichi's eyes, lying on top of him. Then she felt the sensation of their nude bodies squeezing against each other, nothing separating them. Something was pressing into her belly with increasing hardness.

'_Oh my…'_

Shinobu didn't scream, faint or jump away in a panic. She wasn't a teenager anymore, after all. In the past she had handled similar situations caused by the legendary clumsiness of her dorm manager Keitaro rather poorly. This time she would do better and remain completely calm. She did blush profusely, though. Making sure she wouldn't slip again, Shinobu slowly stood up. Deliberately not looking at Keiichi, she wrapped a towel around her body and handed the man another one.

That snapped him out of his stupor. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

The young woman shook her head. "Please stop apologizing; this was my fault. There was no harm done."

Keiichi required a lot more reassurance before he finally stopped apologizing. In some ways he really reminded her of Keitaro-senpai. Well, there wasn't anyone here who would punch him for any transgressions, real or imagined. She certainly wouldn't do so; the man was kind to a fault and she was greatly in his debt.

Leaving the bathroom, Shinobu couldn't help but smile wistfully. They had known each other only a week and she already trusted him completely. Maybe, just maybe… Shaking these thoughts off, Shinobu got clothed and began preparing breakfast. Soon Keiichi joined her in the kitchen. When their eyes met both blushed, but neither of them brought up the bathroom incident. A few seconds later she left to get the children ready for the day.

The two oldest were already up, helping their black-haired middle sister Emiko to the bathroom. At least they considered themselves as siblings; Shinobu didn't think they were actually related. "Do you need help?"

"Thank you, we'll manage." the oldest sibling Misao replied, her blonde hair still messy from sleep.

Stepping out of the way, Shinobu watched them disappear into the bathroom. The two oldest were fiercely independent and protective of their sisters. Their manual dexterity and mental development was really astounding for kids their age. She had never met such strange children. It made her really wonder what had been done to them. The look on their faces when she had given them some toys a few days ago…

Shaking her head, the woman reentered the bedroom to take care of the two youngest children. There had been quite some improvement from their initial nearly catatonic state. Their eyes now tracked things and if she wasn't mistaken they would begin to crawl soon. It warmed her heart to see them slowly getting better. She had always wanted children and the five were as good as hers. Of course, there was still a lot to do, but Shinobu was confident she would manage to help them. They mostly seemed to need caring and love, and of course hugs; lots and lots of hugs.

The day passed largely as had the others; Keiichi left for work while she took care of the children and looked through possible lodgings for them. They had imposed on the kind man long enough already, but somehow Shinobu felt hesitant to leave him. Time simply flew by until it was time for lunch. Iku and Ami needed to be spoon-fed, of course, but this time something was different. When Shinobu went to help the middle girl the older two stopped her. Before Shinobi could ask why she saw the reason. With an intense look of concentration on her face Emiko took a spoon into her hand and used it to move some porridge from the bowl into her mouth without spilling anything.

Shinobu clapped her hands. "You made it! That's wonderful."

The black-haired girl gave her a smile before she returned to the complicated task of feeding herself. Soon enough the meal was over and it was time for the girl's afternoon nap. Shinobu had the distinct impression that it annoyed Misao and Aeko greatly (Emiko was mostly too hard to read), but they never made a fuss. Frankly, the girls were far too well-behaved, but Shinobu didn't feel like complaining.

Most of the afternoon was spent with various household chores while listening to the radio with half an ear.

"… the police have still no further leads regarding the Yakuza mass shooting in… is presumed to have started when drug money along with several men disappeared…"

'_That's where Keiichi picked us up. I'm really glad we didn't stay there. If the Yakuza had discovered my money things would have become difficult.'_

Currently the money was still in the suitcase in her room. She had tried to pay Keiichi for letting them stay, but he had refused. Afternoon turned into evening and Keiichi returned from work, bringing several shopping bags with him. After greeting the girls (who thankfully were perfectly content to entertain themselves with their toys) he joined her in sorting and putting the purchases away while chatting amicably.

Suddenly Shinobu tried to grab the same item as Keiichi, causing their hands to meet. "Sorry."

Turning towards him she noticed the slight blush on his face and couldn't help but smile. As always his eyes drew her gaze. He had such nice, kind eyes…

* * *

Meanwhile, three small girls were watching the scene from a couch with two more napping girls at their sides. Armisael (now going by the name of Misao) leaned over to Arael (now Aeko). "Did you set them up for this? Because I assuredly didn't. They didn't act that way yesterday."

The green-haired girl was equally surprised. "No, I wanted to see first how they react to each other when I don't control them at all. That's all them. Their new memories might play a role, but I changed almost nothing in Keiichi and only made the last years far more pleasant for Shinobu. Well, and I alleviated some issues they both had, but I didn't cause them to like each other."

"Well, that's convenient. We might be able to cut back on the mind-rape. I still can't believe they bought the story you created in Shinobu's mind."

Aeko pouted. "Spoilsport. That was a brilliantly crafted work of fiction."

Ignoring the comment, Misao looked thoughtfully at the adults who seemed completely entranced looking into each other's eyes while holding hands. "Do any of you want to take any bets how long it will be until the two start fucking like bunnies?"

"_The rumors were right. You Armisaels are all perverts."_ Leliel (now Emiko) remarked silently. She still hadn't mastered the art of forming human language even if her motor control steadily got better.

Misao shrugged. "Guilty as charged. Angel of the Womb, the name says it all."

Suddenly the two adults noticed what they were doing and blushed even harder, but they didn't let go of each other's hand. That looked definitely promising.

Since nothing else of interest appeared to happen Misao shifted her attention back to the task at hand (playing with toy blocks). The situation felt a bit denigrating. On the one hand she was older than the entire human civilization even if she only counted the time she had spent as an active Angel. On the other hand she had currently the body of a not-quite-three-year-old. It was a bit more advanced than a purely human child at that age, but not much. Being mothered felt quite strange, especially considering that Angels didn't have parents as such. Other Angels acting as mentors, yes, but not parents. The Creators didn't count.

'_I guess I have to try and enjoy it. Might as well pay attention how it is done right.'_

The next, naturally born generation of Nephilim would need proper parenting, after all. Iruel and Ramiel (now publically named Iku and Ami) needed it, too. Aeko estimated it would be one to two months until coherent communication via AT-field would be possible with them and a few months more until they reached their current state of development. Misao wondered what personalities they would develop; they were for all intents and purposes blank slates with access to a lot of angelic knowledge.

She frowned slightly as a block slipped from her fingers. Now that she had completed the post-transformation modifications and given each Nephilim an individual appearance she had some slight coordination problems. They no longer looked like quintuplets; their bone structure and coloring (and genetic makeup) was now different. A day or two of practice would take care of that, fortunately. A bigger problem was their unusual hair and eye color. Normally human hair color was governed by two types of pigments. Unfortunately the Rei clones were using several completely different types, making it impossible to imitate normal human hair color. Rei's light blue hair and red eyes were a testament to that. Since those very pigments were also involved in the foundations of brain chemistry she had not been able to change them with her available resources. It was one of those compromises she had been forced to accept.

If someone took a closer look he would be able to determine that her own blond was in truth a yellow-white and Iku's red would never appear naturally in humans. Emi's black looked strange, too, and it was better to not even mention Aeko's green and Ami's dark blue. She didn't have full control of what colors emerged at the end. Hopefully they would get around that by claiming they dyed their hair. Unfortunately most dyes wouldn't work properly. Surprisingly their skin color would always remain relatively pale with only minimal differences. Tanning was impossible, but thankfully they wouldn't have that much problems with the sun; perhaps even less than humans with a much darker skin tone. Only time would tell.

Nothing really interesting happened that day. Keiichi and Shinobu constantly stole glances at each other, they were forced to bath (by Shinobu, thanks to their small bodies they couldn't properly use the showers and using AT-fields to compensate would cause far too many questions), got fed dinner (Shinobu was a really good cook), played a little more and finally got read a bedtime story by Keiichi.

"You know, I'm a bit baffled how the two treat us." Misao softly remarked when the younger ones had fallen asleep and her AT-sense located the two adults in the living room.

"This is what they are naturally inclined to do." Aeko answered equally quietly. "They would want to help small children in need. Most likely they would have done this even without my influence but for their crippling mental issues. After getting those out of the way I mostly only had to fill in blanks or tweak circumstances so that they don't question our background. I don't think I will have to make any big changes; just prod them in the right direction if something comes up."

It was late in the night when Misao awoke as a certain bodily need made itself felt. She still was getting used to her new body. All that stuff was _annoying_.

'_Note to self: Drinking too much water before bed is not a good idea.'_

After relieving herself she noticed light and sounds coming from the living room. Upon investigation she spied the two adults sitting on the couch holding hands and watching TV. A bottle with some liquid and two slender glasses was on the table before them.

"4… 3… 2… 1… 0! A happy 2004 to all our viewers!"

The two said something that Misao couldn't hear from her position and chinked their glasses before taking a sip. Shinobu hesitated for a moment; then she leant forward and planted a kiss on Keiichi's lips. The man seemed a bit surprised, but he didn't do anything to stop the woman. After a few seconds they separated, simply sitting together and holding hands.

'_Well, that's promising. It seems I don't even have to play with their hormone levels anymore than I already have when I fixed some issues and made some improvements.'_

Misao sniggered a bit when she returned to the guestroom. There would be a few nice surprises for the two when they finally got around to having sex.

* * *

"OH GOD! Again?"

"How is that even possible?"

"Mmmh. Don't know, don't care. Just continue. MMMHHHH."

* * *

Keiichi Morisato wore a broad smile when he left his bedroom this morning. The night had been memorable. Shinobu had finally lost patience two weeks after their first kiss and dragged him with her after the children were safely asleep. In past situations of similar nature he had always had that problem with intimacy he had inherited from his father and made a mess of things (that had driven his late girlfriend up the wall on occasion), but not this time. Everything had simply been perfect.

He had already fallen in love with Shinobu a few days after they first met. She was a kind woman with a big heart. In some ways she was very similar to his late girlfriend, but she was clearly her own person. She had managed to fill the void inside of him just by being there; she and the children. It had been a long time since he felt so alive. The passion of last night was just the icing on the cake. It was a very big cake with very much icing and most certainly no lie.

Heading to the bathroom, he stopped when he saw the 'occupied'-sign. A moment later the door opened, revealing the oldest of the five children.

"Good morning, Misao-chan."

"Morning." The girl yawned once before looking at him with knowing eyes. "I take it you had a nice night."

Then the girl waggled her eyebrows in a suggestive manner and left for the guestroom.

'_Did she just do that?' _Keiichi shook his head._ 'Nah, can't be. I must be imagining things.'_

Keiichi thought about his situation while the water from the shower pattered on his head and shoulders. He would have to get a nice ring at first opportunity. The world had seen fit to give him a second chance and he wasn't about to let it slip through his fingers. Last time he had waited and hesitated until the world took his goddess from him. Perhaps he should look for different lodgings, too; his apartment was too small for this many occupants. Additionally, he didn't think this neighborhood was good for bringing up children, especially children as special as these. Shinobu had told him the truth a few days after they met. Yes, a large house in another town sounded just right. He didn't like his current work that much anyway. Adoption papers and birth certificates were easy to obtain with the right amount of money and neither he nor Shinobu had any shortage in that area. Keiichi's smile widened when he thought of them living officially like a true family.

Then Shinobu entered the bathroom and joined him under the shower, giving him a reason for his smile to become even bigger.

* * *

The wedding had been beautiful in Aeko's opinion despite its small size, at least as far as she was able to have an opinion on such things. Thanks to the climate changes in the wake of Second Impact it was always warm, meaning that Shinobu and Keiichi didn't have to wait long. It had come as a surprise to her how quickly the two adults had proceeded with things. If she didn't know better she would have thought someone had manipulated their minds to speed things up, but since she knew she didn't do it and Armisael… no, Misao didn't have the ability to compel them in this fashion she had to accept the fact that Shinobu and Keiichi really loved each other despite the shortness of their time together.

It was really astounding. The two seemed to be made for each other. All Aeko had done was treating their issues, creating a false back story and controlling them for the first few days, although she didn't have them do anything they wouldn't have done on their own. Well, aside from that little visit to the local Yakuza headquarter after finding its location from Shinobu's drug dealer, but that had been mostly her and Emiko's doing. Sometimes she wondered what exactly happened to people Emiko swallowed with her shadow with the intention of disposing of them. It probably wasn't pretty. After that she had only been prodding them a bit here and there. The rest they had done completely on their own. The love they felt for her and her fellow Nephilim was perhaps even more astounding. Originally she had only instilled some measure of protectiveness just to be on the safe side, but it had rapidly expanded into more.

Aeko wasn't sure if she and her fellow two elder Nephilim could reciprocate in full, but maybe it would come in time. Iku and Ami certainly loved them, but their minds were more human anyway. They had developed rapidly in the last months and should begin to speak in the human way very soon. She wondered what their first words would be.

"That's a big truck column." Emiko remarked as their minibus passed them. She had begun speaking at the beginning of February, quoting poetry out of a book Shinobu had received as a wedding gift of all things. The reaction had been fun to watch.

"I heard they are building a lot of things in Hakone." Keiichi answered, not taking his eyes from the road. "For a while I thought to take a job offer there, but I thought better of it. The town where our new home is located is much nicer."

The fact that Shinobu's fake memories warned against Gehirn was left unmentioned. They probably thought it was better not to worry them unnecessarily. Aeko didn't object. It was Mid-March and they were finally moving to the town Shinji would most likely call his home after his mother would be absorbed into Evangelion Unit-01.

Time passed by and Aeko felt herself dozing off. Being in such a young body really sucked sometimes. She only awoke when Keiichi pulled the minibus to a stop. "We're here!"

Aeko, Misao and Emiko got out of the minibus on their own, but the two youngest waited until the adults lifted them out.

Iku choose that moment to speak her first discernible word. "Daddy!" Then she giggled.

Keiichi stared at the girl in wonder for a few moments until he turned to Shinobu. "Did you hear that, love?"

Ami, being the one in Shinobu's arms, apparently didn't want to be left out. "Mommy!" Then she giggled, too.

Several cries of "Mommy!" and "Daddy!" and much excitement later they finally got around to exploring their new home. The house was more of a mansion. It had separate rooms for all of them when they grew older with several to spare. The basement was ideally suited for workshops. Aeko knew that Misao itched to do some experiments and Emiko harbored similar wishes. They wanted to explore their powers further in a safe environment. It would probably be the same for Iku and Ami when they grew mature enough to have access to their angelic powers.

Yes, this house would do beautifully. Now they would only have to wait if Shinji turned up here. Yui's contact experiment should take place in July or August, enough time for them to settle in properly and become part of the local community.

* * *

'_Why did Father send me away? Where is Mommy?'_

Three year old Shinji Ikari sat despondently on a swing, the same thoughts repeating in his head over and over. A few days ago (he wasn't absolutely sure how long) Mommy had taken him to work with her. It had been a great adventure. Then she had entered that big thing and everyone panicked. Mommy didn't come out again.

Shinji didn't understand. Everyone had ignored him. Then Father had said he had no use to him anymore and sent him away. A man in a black suit had accompanied him on a long train ride, never answering his questions. Another man had collected him at the train station and said Shinji would now live with him. He didn't answer his questions either; he only said that his mommy was gone and his father didn't want him anymore. The man wanted to be called sensei. He wasn't unfriendly, but he didn't hold him or showed him much affection either. Shinji had cried himself to sleep every night. Today sensei had taken him to a playground. Shinji didn't want to play, he wanted his mommy.

"Are you sad?"

Shinji looked up. A blond girl with blue eyes the same age as him was standing before him, looking at him intently.

"I miss my mommy."

The girl nodded sagely. "My and my sisters' daddy and mommy are gone, too. We found new ones." She cocked her head. "Want to meet them? You will like them. It's going to be fun. What's your name?"

"I'm Shinji." Shinji didn't really want to do anything; he only wanted his mommy or even his father. Apparently he waited too long with an answer; the girl took his hand in hers and pulled him up with surprising strength. A look to the side showed him that sensei had fallen asleep on the bench. Hesitantly he followed the girl who still held his hand in a tight grip.

Mere moments later they arrived at the edge of the sandpit of the playground. Four girls of similar age were playing there supervised by a kind-looking woman a short distance away. Their hair colors were strange; black, red, blue and green. He had never really seen the last ones. All of them looked up when they approached.

The blond girl addressed the group. "Listen everyone! This is Shinji. He's sad because his mommy is gone. Let's give him a hug."

Suddenly Shinji found himself the center of a group hug. The girl with strangely green hair and golden eyes was directly in front of him. For a moment her eyes seemed to glow. When Shinji blinked they were normal again. Suddenly he felt a knot of tension inside of him loosen somewhat.

'_What just happened?'_

* * *

**Dramatis personae**

**Armisael/Misao **– Angel of the Womb, ribbon of light/blue-eyed blonde, instigator of this little drama and specialist for all matters biological ("Manipulating the very secrets of life is a delicate art." / "I want to have your babies, NOW!")

**Arael/Aeko **– Angel of the Birds, white crystal wings/golden-eyed greenette, psychological specialist ("There are no issues of the human psyche a good mind-rape can't fix." / "Hallelujah!")

**Leliel/Emiko **– Angel of the Night, shadow stalker/purple-eyed girl with black hair, spy and transportation specialist ("I'm always only the width of a shadow away." / "The shadows are watching you.")

**Iruel/Iku** – Angel of Terror, nano-swarm/green-eyed redhead, computer and technology expert ("Was this crap developed by lobotomized monkeys hammering blindly on a keyboard?" / "im in ur base, killing ur d00ds")

**Ramiel/Ami** – Angel of Thunder, octahedron of doom/grey-eyed dark bluenette, physics and chemistry expert, but mainly along for the ride just for the hell of it ("I can do geometry!" / "KA-BOOM!")

**Lilith/Rei** –Progenitor of Humanity and all life on Earth, crucified white giant kept in the basement/disposable red-eyed clone girl with light blue hair, as of yet unknowing participant in the plan (*stare* *blink* *stare* / "I don't know what to do or feel at a time like this.")

**Shinji Ikari** – a human boy, unwitting pawn in all kinds of schemes, cuddly toy for the cast above ("Where is Mommy? Why did Father send me away?" / "I'm sorry.")

**Shinobu Morisato** (formerly Maehara) – unknowing ex-druggie, housekeeper and cook, adoptive mother

**Keiichi Morisato** – mechanical engineer, racing motorcyclist, adoptive father

* * *

**Author's notes:** Thank you for the reviews.

This chapter was ready a lot sooner than I thought thanks to an unexpected train journey without anything else to do. It is the last of the pre-written chapters. I'm not really sure about the names (I suck at coming up with names on my own); I tried to keep them as similar as possible to their Angel names.

So long.


	5. Chapter 5

**Shinji's Angels**

**Chapter 5**

Mamoru Ando, teacher and guardian of Shinji Ikari, suppressed a yawn as he headed home, his young charge walking at his side. Shinji seemed much more relaxed and happy than a few hours ago. He wondered if something had happened at the playground, but he had fallen asleep pretty soon after arriving. Only when Shinji had tugged his hand had he woken.

'_I will have to report that.'_

The boy's father had been very clear that he wanted to be informed of any change in behavior. Not for the first time Mamoru wondered why the boy had been sent to him. Granted, he had volunteered to take an orphan in (mainly because it meant a pay rise and it felt like the right thing to do), but Shinji wasn't an orphan. Obviously his father still took interest, even if he didn't want the boy to know that. Heck, he paid a not inconsiderable sum for the boy's support.

Arriving at his apartment, he prepared a meal for himself and Shinji. After putting the child to bed he considered for a moment to begin writing his report. On the other hand he felt very tired despite his afternoon nap.

'_There's always tomorrow.'_

Mamoru wasn't sure what woke him, but from one moment to the next he emerged from the depths of sleep. He had hardly time to identify three small figures before a blinding yellow-white light wiped every conscious thought from his mind.

**HALLELUJAH!**

* * *

Misao watched expressionlessly as Aeko dissected Shinji's caretaker's mind. He was their second target tonight. The first had been a man spying on Shinji from the roof of a building near the playground, but he had been easily dealt with. In fact, he had been unobtrusively swallowed by Emiko's shadow as soon as they noticed him and made sure he was operating alone. Of course, all those events had been erased from the man's mind; he wouldn't report anything suspicious. He had been the last of Shinji's minders left. There were a few more observers working in shifts they had already taken care of before making contact with Shinji.

"I'm finished for tonight." Aeko announced. "Please take us back, Emiko."

A moment later the shadow of Emiko's Dirac Sea swallowed them, but after not even a second they reappeared in one of the bedrooms in the Morisato household. Immediately they were beleaguered by two other girls.

"How did it go?" "Did you turn the man's brain to mush?" "How's Shinji?" "Did you make his head explode?" "What did you find out?" "Did his eyeballs go 'pop'?"

"No, I didn't make his eyeballs 'go pop'. Calm down and we will tell you." Aeko answered, causing the two girls to immediately fall silent.

Both Iku and Ami had made great strides in the last few months and spoke fluently. They were still very childish, but they understood what they were and why they couldn't tell Shinobu and Keiichi. By now the older Nephilim allowed them the use of some of their powers, but they still had to monitor them closely. Iku behaved generally responsibly even if she had a tendency to take electronic things apart and make 'Improvements'. Misao still felt like scratching her head when she thought of what their first television set had turned into. Thankfully that had been a one-time occurrence. Emiko had disposed of it and acquired a new one before the adults noticed. Iku still grumbled often over the primitiveness of things.

Ami posed the occasional problem. She was very, very curious, very, very intelligent and very, very enthusiastic. That alone wouldn't have been a problem. Her fascination with all things that went 'boom' was, though. Misao blamed television for that; Ami had caught a report about explosives at a critical point in her development and the cartoons they were occasionally allowed to watch reinforced it. Why someone would show those American cartoons Misao had no idea, but Ami had fallen in love with a certain coyote. Even worse, she always wanted to use her angelic knowledge. Misao wasn't sure what a 5th-dimensional fractal bomb was, but she was sure she didn't want one in their house… or possibly in the same solar system as them.

Misao nodded in satisfaction when the two calmed down. "Good. Now, Shinji is completely fine. He was sleeping peacefully when we visited. Aeko?"

The green-haired girl cleared her throat. "The caretaker is an unknowing pawn, just as the people we caught observing Shinji. Most of them think his father actually cares about him and is doing this for his protection. The problem is that the man is inherently unsuited to caring for a traumatized child in a personal capacity, or any child for that matter. He doesn't mean any harm, but from what we know about the old future he is one of the main factors Shinji will never get over his abandonment and develop a psychological complex. I think Shinji's father picked him deliberately. It will be very detrimental for his development if he remains in the man's care."

"How will we deal with this problem?" Emiko asked. The black-haired Nephilim never talked much or showed much facial expression, staying calm, stoic and controlled at every time.

Aeko shrugged. "As I said before, mind-rape solves everything. I will manipulate the man to let Shinji spend more time with us and finally sign over his care completely. Our parents won't need any prodding; they have such big hearts that they will accept him without problems. Keiichi should present a very good role model. The agents won't notice a thing, but we'll keep tabs on them to deal with any new arrivals."

Iku raised her hand. "What about technological means of surveillance?"

"There don't seem to be any at this time." Misao answered. "Currently Gehirn and Gendo Ikari have only limited resources; they are still fully occupied with Evangelion construction and expansion of the geofront. Shinji's father simply can't afford to send dozens of agents to deal with a relatively minor task as his son; not when everything appears to be going fine. The MAGI supercomputers might present a problem, but they will still be in the planning and design phase for years. The projected begin of construction is around 2008. Last time they finished in 2010. By that time you should have learned enough to deal with technological problems. We count on you for that, Iku."

The red-haired girl nodded earnestly. "You can depend on me."

"Why don't we simply mind-rape Shinji's father or even better, make him go boom?" Ami asked curiously.

Misao nodded in acknowledgement. "A good question. We don't kill him because he has an important role to play. The Evangelions need to be constructed and Nerv has to be established. They are needed for the fight against the Angels. He is a very good administrator. If we kill him another, possibly lesser skilled pawn of SEELE will take his place and that might be very detrimental to the overall situation. Unfortunately we can't get at SEELE itself, mostly because we don't know who and where they are. Additionally, without them using their world-wide influence the Evangelions won't be constructed in the available time if at all."

Aeko took over the explanation. "As for why I don't simply mind-rape him… aside from the difficulty of getting to him he's more or less doing what we want him to do anyway. As I have learned it is difficult for me to make lasting fundamental changes to a person's nature. The only part we could change would make him forget about Shinji, but that might possibly prevent him from becoming a pilot. We simply can't control his every action. If he takes Shinji back we can't build a relationship with him. As idiotic and full of holes Gendo's scenario is, it presents the best opening for completely preventing Third Impact. Now, as soon as his usefulness is at an end things will change."

Considering how often pure luck had saved Shinji and the other pilots 'full of holes' was putting it mildly in Misao's opinion. From what she had learned from Lilith-Rei's memories and futile attempts to go back in time Shinji could have easily died against the third Angel Sachiel before he ever got into the geofront. Most of the Angles hadn't been defeated by any pre-planned tactic but by either blind luck or spur of the moment things. Considering that the Angels generally had almost no mental processing power available and didn't use their abilities effectively that said very bad things about the strategic foresight and ability to plan and command of Nerv's top echelon.

"We will take things slowly and carefully so that we don't ask too much of Shinji's ability to cope and catch possible mistakes in time. Things like meeting with him with increasing frequency, play dates and Shinji spending more and more time here until he moves permanently." Misao concluded. "Are there any objections?"

There were none.

* * *

"Aren't they cute?" Shinobu quietly asked.

Keiichi looked to where his wife was looking and felt a smile appearing on his face. Apparently the girls were teaching Shinji how to read. Judging from the look of concentration on Shinji's face and the reactions of the girls the endeavor was going well. "It seems they have finally found someone they are able to connect with."

He was very glad about that; finding acceptable playmates for their children had been difficult. All of their girls were very, very intelligent; sometimes scarily so. The three oldest often acted like adults in children's bodies. Ami and Iku were the most normal, but that wasn't saying much. They had come a long way from the almost catatonic, helpless children they had been when he met them more than a year ago. Now they were energetic and displayed an insatiable curiosity. Their ability to understand things was unsettling at times, but on other occasions they acted like the four year olds they were. All in all they were very special children and very dear to Keiichi.

Still, their very intelligence made it difficult for them to deal with normal children. Oh, they tried to be nice and fit in, but their mental faculties were just too different. If anything it tried their patience instead of being a fun pastime, meaning they usually asked to not be made to play with those other children again after a few meetings at the latest. Shinji was the only one whose company they genuinely seemed to enjoy. Since their first meeting a year ago they had spent more and more time together. Like their girls Shinji seemed unusually intelligent, if to a lesser degree. Still, he could apparently keep up. By now he was practically living in their house. At first he had been very introverted, but Shinobu and the girls got him to open up over time.

Keiichi and Shinobu had been stunned at what they had learned from the boy. His mother had disappeared, possibly died, before his very eyes and his father had basically abandoned him immediately after that without any sort of emotional support. You simply didn't do such a thing to a three year old child. Shinji needed much support and care; a trauma of that strength at such a young age could cause all sorts of psychological issues later. They had talked with the boy's caretaker a few times and they hadn't been impressed. While the man was well-meaning he was basically unsuitable to raise children; he didn't even recognize that Shinji had issues.

What had complicated the matter was that both of Shinji's parents were members of Gehirn, the very organization Shinobu feared. It was risky to keep contact with Shinji. In the end they had decided it didn't matter. They just couldn't leave a child so obviously in need of help alone. Besides, the girls had already liked him too much. Together they had helped Shinji work through his problems. By now he had left his issues largely behind and was basically a happy child that spent far more time with them than his regular guardian, not that the man seemed to mind.

A small disturbance at the children's location caused Keiichi to cease his introspection.

"Baka Shinji, don't call us your sisters. We'll marry you some day." Misao announced with conviction. The others nodded. Shinji seemed bewildered for a moment before he shrugged and the group continued what they were doing.

"So cute." Shinobu whispered when she turned back to housework.

Keiichi couldn't help but wonder a bit. Normally their children didn't say things they didn't mean, but surely the girls couldn't seriously plan on marrying Shinji just yet. For all their intelligence Keiichi doubted they completely understood such things at their age. Still, they were extremely advanced…

'_Nah, I'm probably only imagining things.'_

* * *

When Misao thought about how the day had gone she felt content. It was far too early for any real progress to woo Shinji, of course, but they could lay the groundwork. On the one hand it was flattering that Shinji was close enough to them to call them his sisters. One the other hand they didn't want him to see them in that light; that would cause problems later on and she could do without any further psychological issues on Shinji's part. Well, considering that Rei looked like a color-shifted version of his mother and that they planned on disposing of his father at some point there would always be some oedipal implications, but that could not be helped.

Sometimes she wondered about their love to Shinji. Because of their nature it had been more or less directly copied into their souls from Rei and was a basic, irremovable part of their existence, but the exact Shinji she had loved would now never exist. Fortunately Rei didn't love Shinji, but the mental concept Shinji-as-seen-by-Rei. That was an important difference. As long as they ended up with someone sufficiently 'Shinji' he would fit that pattern and they would be able to develop their own individual relationships to him aside from the cut-and-pasted part. Rei had come to love the kind and caring nature he displayed, but she had never truly looked into the depths of his mind and soul. Third Impact and Instrumentality didn't really change that for Rei. When Misao had still been Armisael she had seen far more during that cataclysm. Additionally she had received a memory dump from each of the defeated Angels in the old timeline. The other Leliel had performed a psychic scan of the other Shinji and Arael had done an even more thorough mind-rape of the other Asuka. That had allowed the Nephilim to put together a nearly complete analysis of the other Shinji.

Shinji Ikari had been a deeply damaged human, lacking in drive and motivation yet desperate for the love and acknowledgement of others. His fear of being hurt, hated or left behind was almost crippling. Self-worth was practically a foreign concept to him and he always blamed himself for everything. The entire time he had been trying to run away from himself. Aeko was of the opinion it was a miracle he had turned out as well-adjusted as he had been. In fact, most people in his position would have snapped far earlier.

Now though everything was different. Through a few careful, gentle mental prods Aeko had alleviated the still fresh trauma. The rest had only taken a positive, supporting environment. Without the untreated, deep-seated trauma and with the support of their surrogate family Shinji would hopefully fare considerably better. It would be interesting to see how he would develop over the next years. Frankly, the amount of intelligence he showed at this early time was unexpected, but very welcome. Normal human children were just so tedious.

'_The slight modifications I made to Shinji's body can't play a role yet; that's all him.'_

Misao hadn't yet made any extensive changes. In fact, at the current time Shinji was less modified than Keiichi and Shinobu. She had to be very careful not to make any changes that would be easily discovered if someone examined his genetic makeup. The only thing she had done was heading off some potential health problems, optimized a few other things and laid the groundwork for more extensive changes. They planned to be with Shinji for a long, long time, after all, far longer than even an optimized human could ever hope to live. Nephilim weren't truly immune to old age nor would they achieve the untold millions of years some Angels existed, but they still could look forward to a natural life that spanned millennia. If they should feel the need to live longer there was always the option to extend their life through advanced medical means. Unfortunately, in Shinji's case that was still a long way off. Several problems would have to be solved before she could attempt transforming him into a Nephilim.

The Angel-to-Nephilim transformation had been a full success, but the Human-to-Nephilim one had yet to be properly developed. It wasn't as if she could do that willy-nilly. In a way it was far more difficult. The Rei clones, flawed as they had been, had represented a good base material she could freely manipulate. Furthermore, Angels were far more… flexible than humans in several ways.

Not only would Misao have work with a human body as base material, she would have to change Shinji's soul at the same time as his body in one go without him dying in the process. She couldn't do that in substeps aside from some initial preparation. Both a human and a Nephilim were viable life forms, but the transient state was unstable to the extreme. All in all it would probably be a traumatic experience. One of the dead Angel cores would be consumed and she only had so very few of them left. Humans weren't capable of unfolding their AT-fields while Nephilim were, but they had come up with a few ways to train Shinji at least somewhat beforehand. Still, Misao wouldn't risk him in her first true attempt. She would need a proper laboratory to test some theories and use some humans as guinea pigs to verify things. There were many things she yet had to learn. Only then would she attempt the transformation in earnest.

'_I wonder how my first experimental subject is doing.'_

* * *

Misato Katsuragi rolled her eyes at her friend. "Yes, we broke up. Why is that so hard to believe?"

Ritsuko Akagi still looked to be startled at the news. "But why?"

The young woman shrugged. "We went on a few dates, had sex a few times and decided it didn't work between us."

"And that was it?"

Misato huffed. "Yes, that was it. What, did you expect us to skip classes, stay in bed and have sex for a week straight?"

Ritsuko still didn't seem to believe it. She continued to pester her about every detail of her brief relationship with Ryoji Kaji and their reasons for breaking up. Frankly, it got on Misato's nerves. She had introduced them a few days after she and Kaji started dating, but Ritsuko had shown no great interest then. Misato knew her friend had some trouble to understand romantic relationships (and wasn't that a laugh? Misato was the one who had spent two years in something approaching solitary confinement) but this interrogation was unexpected.

"If you like him so much why don't you make a move on him?" Misato finally asked, completely exasperated.

A contemplative expression settled on Ritsuko's face. "You know, I just might do that." She suddenly looked worried. "You won't hold that against me?"

Misato shrugged. "Why should I? We weren't a couple for very long. You should wait a few days, though; I think Kaji is currently only looking for a rebound girl."

Later that evening, Misato was lying in her bed. A half-full beer can was in her hand and she took occasional sips while she thought about the matter. Hopefully Ritsuko would fare better than her. She wasn't completely sure why she had ended the relationship. The sex had been good and her now ex-boyfriend had clearly shown a desire to stay with her, but something she couldn't define had been missing. It was only the last in a string of failed relationships. In the rare moments when she truly thought about these things she suspected that she had issues with commitment and emotionally opening herself to other people.

'_Gee, not speaking a word for two years is a pretty good sign that I have some problems.'_

Misato sighed before taking another sip. She was much better than she had been, but sometimes she wondered if she would ever be completely fine. Her fingers found and touched a particular spot on her chest before closing around the cross pendant her father had given her. She was pretty sure she had been wounded when her father put her in the pod before Antarctica was destroyed, but there were no traces of any injuries. It only added to the mystery of what had happened that day.

She was one of the few people who knew Second Impact wasn't caused by an asteroid impact, not that she would ever tell that anyone. The existence of the Angels was to be kept secret and she had no intention of pissing certain people off. Two years of confinement had been enough. Besides, they offered her a chance at revenge. One day the Angels would return and if she behaved she would be part of the effort of defending humanity against them.

The young woman hated the Angels. They had robbed her of her father just when their relationship improved. There were so many things between her and her father; things that would now never be resolved.

Misato shook her head, stood up and threw the now empty beer can into the trash. _'Enough brooding. I think there's a party at Nao's house. Perhaps I'll meet another cute guy.'_

She didn't know what exactly she was looking for, but she would keep searching.

* * *

Rei Ayanami stared at the ceiling, blinking occasionally. There was nothing else to do; her next lesson would only begin tomorrow. Commander Ikari had ordered her to rest and that was what she was doing. Her body was not yet in a state where it would allow her to sleep. She wondered if she would dream again.

She dreamed rarely, but when she dreamt it was always the same dream. It was her first, hazy memory at the same time. There weren't any distinct images or sound, just the presence of five others and feelings of belonging, comfort and safety, a promise to come back for her. She was loyal to Commander Ikari, but she had never revealed that dream to him. It didn't concern him; it was hers alone.

Sometimes Rei wondered if it was a real memory at all or only a figment of her imagination. She knew she was replaceable, but a part of her hoped that it wasn't so. The idea that there was someone out there who valued her existence gave her a warm feeling in her chest, partly filling a void she would have never truly noticed otherwise.

* * *

Iku, the being formerly known as Iruel, Angel of Terror, was annoyed. In and of itself that wasn't unusual; being annoyed was pretty much the basic state of her being. Practically everything in this world annoyed her to some degree, but the underlying issue was that everything was so _primitive_ and she wasn't allowed to make Improvements. She still missed Mister Teavee, but she had come to grudgingly admit that turning the television set into a mobile, robotic playmate with anger management issues hadn't been the wisest course of action.

Her most current source of irritation was school. Now that they were six years old they had to visit that dreaded institution. It was an insult to their intelligence; each of them had learned to read years ago. Well, at least she could access the school's network from her current position, not that anyone noticed what she was doing. She could use her AT-field to interface with every electronic system in the vicinity and was very good at multitasking. Hacking into different national institutions beat reading that imbecilic children's book. She was good enough that no one would be able to trace her back. Even if they did manage to track her through all precautions they would only end up at their school's address; since she didn't use an actual terminal there was no individual computer to find.

In truth going to a normal school was only a deception. They had to keep a low profile for the time being and practice moving in human society. In a few years the groundwork would be finished and they could move more openly. The parallel, much more advanced education their parents provided would have to be kept secret for now. In reality they were far more advanced than their peers even in areas outside their specialties. As a former Angel specialized on technology there were few things about any piece of technology she couldn't grasp after a short scan.

Iku grimaced slightly. There was the disconnect again. She remembered being a distributed swarm of nano-machines responsible for maintenance and repair on the White Moon, but she couldn't truly reconcile that with her current state of being. Her active existence as Iruel had lasted barely two hundred years without much happening, too short to allow her to develop a distinct personality. On the other hand that made accepting her current status easier in a way. She thought of herself mostly as a human (or rather human-like being) with extra knowledge tacked on. Ami did the same. How Misao, Aeko and Emiko dealt with their extremely long existence as Angels she had no idea. Neither did she really know what to make of her relationship to Shinji. She liked the boy (not the least because he was the most intelligent person her age she knew aside from her sisters), but according to her three older sisters they were actually incapable of not liking him thanks to a little snafu on Misao's part when she deleted their loyalty programming. It was a bit difficult to accept that some things were engraved on their very souls.

Suddenly she became aware that one of the little programs she had inserted into various websites had reported back.

'_Well, well, well, what have we here?'_

It seemed like one of the higher-ups of the primary construction company involved in expanding the geofront liked to download pornography from his workplace. Now Iku had control over his computer thanks to some expertly crafted malware programs. It allowed her to access the entire company's intranet. Sending out another set of programs, she returned to her personal task of designing a brand new supercomputer. While she was a superhumanly skilled technology expert her attention capacity and time were ultimately limited. They needed something that wouldn't sleep or be otherwise distracted. Emiko would acquire raw materials and electronics while she would construct the actual device in an old bunker facility they (or rather a fake identity) had gotten ownership of with prodigious use of breaking and entering, falsification of records and mind-rape. Still, they would probably need a couple of years until it was finished.

A few hours later when Iku was back home (and remotely used her father's internet access without him knowing) she received and analyzed the feedback from her programs.

"Oh dear holy A.I. gods, are all humans idiots?" she exclaimed.

Aeko looked up from her current occupation (assembling a wooden marionette) and cocked her head. "In my experience many are, but are you referring to something specific?"

"I just learned that several rather important employees of a high-profile construction firm keep all their passwords in a single text-file on their computers." Iku answered while massaging the bridge of her nose. Such stupidity gave her headaches. Reviewing dozens of construction diagrams didn't help either. "I think I just gained administrator-level access to three quarters of their network. In a few days at the latest I will have full control over the computer systems already installed in Tokyo-3. As expected they plan to connect everything to the MAGI later even if most don't know the details. Some of the preliminary construction plans for those things are there, too."

Construction of Tokyo-3, the alleged new capital of Japan, at the location of the geofront had begun two years ago in 2005. In truth it was only a cover for SEELE's plans to erect a fortress city for fighting the Angels. The Nephilim were all in favor, but the MAGI would pose problems to them. Those supercomputers would control nearly everything in the city, meaning it would be far too easy to catch them on video or detect their AT-fields. To prevent that they needed full access to… modify a few things.

Iku remembered her counterpart Iruel's attempt to hack the MAGI from the memory dump Misao had given her. It had been an embarrassing failure. The Angel had managed to get undetected into Nerv's headquarters and what did it do? Instead of sneaking around and covertly taking control it made its presence obvious with a direct attempt at the life of the command crew and a brute-force attempt at hacking the MAGI. You couldn't get much dumber.

"Are you able to change the construction plans without anyone noticing?" Aeko asked.

The redhead nodded. "Sure. We will have to go over things carefully, but laying a few landlines that don't appear in any of the final construction plans will be easy. A few additional changes and no one will be able to cut our connection to the MAGI because they don't know the connections are there."

"And the MAGI themselves?" the green-haired Nephilim probed further.

"The actual construction of those things will only begin next year; the planning and design phase is still ongoing. I should be able to sneak enough changes into the code and hardware without too many problems." Iku leant back, staring at the ceiling. "As soon as we manage to complete our own supercomputer we'll be able to play that piece of trash for fools. Still, I would like to visit the geofront before that. According to the schedule I just found the AT-field detectors will be finished soon. If I can change the design so that it automatically ignores our AT-fields we can avoid a whole lot of trouble."

"Yes, I can see how that would be beneficial. We'll have to talk with the others about that. I don't know if Emiko is strong enough to get us there and back in one night."

Iku scowled slightly. They were all far weaker than they had been as Angels. Their endurance and power would increase somewhat as their bodies grew and matured, but they would regain only a fraction of their erstwhile capabilities. Only Emiko had access to her Dirac Sea even if Ami sometimes muttered something about hers. Of course, they were able to use the abilities they had much more intelligently. Still, direct confrontation with other Angels was out.

"Maybe we can pay Rei a visit. I would like to know how she is doing." Aeko said after a few seconds of silence. "We can't risk teleporting there blindly, though."

"I would have to hack Gehirn's security systems first, but if we go at all that doesn't make much of a difference." Iku answered. She didn't remember Rei as such, only the impression of a sixth AT-field aside from her sisters, but she still considered her a sibling.

It was two weeks later that she made the critical breakthrough. All her infiltration programs had yielded mountains of data, much more than she could review without the help of a dedicated supercomputer. For now she had hacked hundreds of personal computers all over the world that did the work for her without their users noticing a thing. The security awareness of many humans was truly lacking. The people belonging to Gehirn were much more security conscious. At the current time most of their networks had no direct connection with the outside world. Unfortunately for them some of their employees used the same data storage devices for private things and business.

Creating a program that would do what she needed had been difficult since she didn't know the structure of their network, but now the first one had reported back.

Suddenly Iku grinned widely. She had just gained access to Gehirn's network. The firewalls and other security stuff were impressive, but that didn't help if you had the correct passwords. Working through intermediaries would be a pain, but soon she would learn everything about Gehirn's current setup.

"All your base are belong to us."

* * *

Rei was once again alone in her room. There was nothing to do. A long series of tests had concluded a few hours ago and Commander Ikari had announced that he would be gone for a few days. Food was delivered to her, but the people never talked.

Suddenly a shadow expanded and turned into a globe. A moment later it disgorged five girls of about six years of age with a variety of hair colors. Rei had never had any contact with other children and watched them curiously. She had no orders regarding such a situation. The strangeness of their entry was only a minor factor.

A girl with green hair grimaced. "I'll never get used to that. Are we secure, Iku?"

The red-head spaced out for a moment before nodding. "All monitoring systems are neutralized and recording a loop. We have around half an hour until the next regular check-up. Oh, hello Rei."

All the children greeted her. Rei still stared unblinkingly at them. She was very confused. How did they know her name? "Who are you?"

The blond came a few steps closer but maintained some distance. "I'm Misao. These are Aeko, Emiko, Iku and Ami. We met once several years ago. I promised we would come back for you."

Rei blinked. "You… promised?"

Could it be that her dream was no dream at all?

"You probably don't remember, but we were once the same as you. We had to leave, but we never forgot you." Misao said.

The green-haired girl stepped closer before she gently touched Rei. It felt strange. Commander Ikari and some other people occasionally touched her, but something was different about this. Rei didn't know what it was. In the few moments of her introspection the others had closed on her. "We are a family, Rei, and you are precious to us. Let us show you."

Suddenly five somethings touched something deep inside Rei, carrying a plethora of feelings with them. Rei couldn't really identify most of them at first, but somehow new concepts were imparted to her along with the feelings. Safety. Caring. Companionship. Love.

'_My dream was true.'_

She immersed herself in those feelings, barely noticing that she had been enclosed in a group hug. So much had been missing before and was now overabundant. The void she now recognized as loneliness was being filled. Then something happened that had never happened before:

Rei began to cry.

* * *

**Author's notes:** Thank you for the reviews.

Rejoice! I actually wrote a new chapter for this story.

Not much Shinji in this chapter, but his time will come. The Rei here has still not received the soul of future-Rei. Armisael/Misao knows that Rei I has to die and wants to avoid complications like memory loss.

So long.


	6. Chapter 6

**Shinji's Angels**

**Chapter 6**

Deep sobs shook Rei's small body as for the first time in her life emotions flowed completely uncontrolled, most of whom she had never realized she possessed in the first place. Never before had she felt safe and cared for. The terrible loneliness that had defined her life to date was filled by the presence of the five girls surrounding her. She was sharing emotions and to a lesser degree mental concepts with them in a way she had never known existed.

Rei's soul sang in harmony with five others and she knew love, friendship and family.

Finally her sobs died down and the group hug ended. The blond girl Misao still maintained the gentle hold on her and examined her critically. _"No, this won't do. Hold still."_

After steering her gently to her cot the girl removed a handkerchief from her pocket and began to gently clean up Rei's tear-streaked face. Rei didn't know what to make of it. She knew about washing and keeping clean, but this had a component of actual _caring_.

Half a minute later Misao was finished. _"Much better." _

Suddenly Rei realized that the girl didn't actually utter any words. "What is this? How can you talk with me without speaking?" she asked.

"_This? This is the light of our souls. It can do many things."_

"I do not understand."

Misao sighed before she spoke, this time with her normal voice. "And I fear we do not have the time to explain everything."

The red-head spoke up suddenly. "We have only eight minutes left before we have to go."

"No! I don't want you to leave!" Rei shouted.

Misao tightened her hold. "Shush, Rei. We don't want to leave either, but our existence cannot be allowed to be discovered. Everything will be fine in the end. Do you trust us?"

Rei considered that. The concept of trust was not unknown, but unfamiliar. There were only the orders of Commander Ikari. Following them had nothing to do with trust. There was no choice, only obedience. If she didn't obey she would be replaced. This was different. She could feel that these people cared for her. They had promised to come for her long ago and had kept that promise.

She finally nodded. "I do."

"We cannot stay with you or take you with us, but we can give you a gift. Aeko, if you would?"

The green-haired girl left her position at the side, stepped up to her and looked directly into her eyes. Without warning yellow-white light filled Rei's vision. It felt as if someone was pouring information into her head at a rapid pace. Rei had no idea how long that lasted. When the light blinked out of existence she felt dizzy.

Golden eyes turned away from her. "This is all I can give her safely. More would overwhelm her mind."

Misao nodded in acceptance. "It will have to do. Rei, I promise we will visit you again, but it will take a while. Please, keep our existence and everything you learned from us a secret. If Ikari or others learn about us they will do all in their power to keep us apart."

Rei heard the words and knew fear.

"I won't tell anyone. I promise." Never feeling this closeness again, being left alone in this cold world would be worse than anything she could imagine.

Misao hugged her closely again. "We trust you, Rei. Unfortunately we have to leave now."

One by one the girls hugged her before taking a position farther in the room. Rei felt the thing that Misao had called 'light of the soul' withdraw. She felt terribly lonely without it. Finally all of the girls had withdrawn.

"Goodbye, Rei. We'll try to visit you again in a month, but it might be longer. One day you will be free, I promise you that."

Shadows appeared from nowhere, engulfing the group. A moment later they were gone as if they had never existed. Rei stared at the spot for a few seconds. Then she returned to the chair she had been sitting before her… family?... siblings?... sisters? arrived.

Rei thought about how she felt about their absence and their promise to return and knew longing.

Since she had nothing else to do she examined the new information in her head. It was strange. There were new memories and abstract information there, but they were not her memories. She had been taught about most things, but actually remembering seeing it was vastly different. Memories of the five girls going about their daily life were the most prevalent. They seemed to be part of a family with two parents and a boy their age. Rei watched in fascination how their life differed from her own. Her understanding of the world grew as she absorbed more and more things.

Rei saw the outside world through the eyes of others and knew curiosity.

It was several days before Commander Ikari returned and the endless lessons and tests resumed. Before he had been the center of her world, the only being that showed her the occasional hint of affection. Now it was different. She didn't fully understand all the information she had been provided with, but what he was doing to her was called emotional deprivation. He prevented her from making interpersonal and environmental experience. What concern he showed was not for her, but for the mysterious purpose he needed her for. Now that she knew what true caring was and how a family normally behaved it was obvious. He wanted her to be loyal to him and him alone. To the Commander she was nothing but a tool to achieve his purpose, to be discarded once she was no longer useful.

She had not planned on telling him anything, but her new insights solidified that resolve. Keeping her emotions and thoughts to herself was natural for her. Her expression remained as impassive as ever. She would give him what she wanted until her sisters could rescue her.

Rei looked at Gendo Ikari and knew hatred.

* * *

Darkness dissolved, depositing the group back in the living room of their house. Misao plopped down on the couch and let out a yawn. It had been a long day. The others looked similarly tired, Emiko especially. Transporting them all the way to Tokyo-3 and back was very draining. A quick check with her AT-field gave Misao confirmation that Shinji and their parents were still asleep and would remain that way.

"So, that was Rei. She seemed smaller than any of us." Ami remarked.

Misao nodded. "Rei's current body has already stopped growing as I feared. I don't think she is able to unfold and use her AT-field either. The other clones I could repair and optimize, but not the flawed body her soul currently inhabits. She will have to die and her soul transplanted."

"Wasn't it rather risky to inform her of our existence? What if she tells Gendo?" Iku asked.

"Then we will have to deal with that. It had to be done." Aeko answered. Then she shivered. "You all felt her soul. The loneliness was terrible beyond words. I will not let a sister of ours suffer through that alone. Emiko, when do you think we can visit her again?"

The black-haired girl blinked sleepily. "Not soon. I'm still not strong enough to transport us this far without it draining me completely. I won't be much use tomorrow."

"That was to be expected. Iku, were you able to find out anything about the status of the black moon?" Misao inquired.

"Not much since I had to rely on a passive scan. Practically all the systems are dead and gone for good, but there was some minimal activity from somewhere far below. To find out more I would have to interface with it and I don't think that would be wise. Our AT-field emissions are pretty much minimal, but the black Tabris would notice any direct interference with his moon. I need to construct some sophisticated equipment to learn more; even my specialized AT-field isn't enough."

They talked for a while about their plans before Misao sent them all to bed. Their bodies required somewhat less rest than a human would, but they still needed it. They had overdone things considering the state of their bodies already. Sleep didn't come easy to her, though. She wanted to get Rei out of there, but they couldn't risk it. Removing Rei would destabilize Gendo Ikari. Destabilizing Gendo might compromise the construction of the Evangelions. The schedule was already tight enough. While the gestation period of the Angels was generally fixed there was some leeway. It would be very bad if one of them showed up several months earlier than expected. The Evangelions had to be finished as soon as possible and their ability to speed the process up was effectively zero. There existed hard limits on the process and the humans under Ikari were already working as fast as possible. Another problem was that different Angels might appear. Her actions during Second Impact had removed five Angels from the roster, but the flight paths of others might have been sufficiently changed to survive instead. The order and number would in all likelihood be different, causing no end of nightmarish scenarios. For example, if Sahaquiel showed up first and simply obliterated Tokyo-3 from orbit it was game over.

Misao didn't believe that likely, though. She had certain suspicions. In the past future all Angel attacks had been survivable. Granted, the humans had often won through sheer luck, but there should have been no possibility of victory in the first place. It looked like the Angels had shown up like lambs (granted, very dangerous lambs) for the slaughter one by one. Something was definitely fishy there.

Another matter of concern was that Misao still held the soul of the future Lilith-Rei inside of her in an inactive state. The other Nephilim had received what memory dumps of their alternative selves Armisael had received, but this was Rei's genuine soul she had dragged with her during the time travel. She was a bit worried about what would happen when she fused it with the Rei of this timeline. Unfortunately she couldn't risk it while Rei still inhabited the flawed body. It would probably simply give out under the strain of supporting a considerably larger soul. Trying to implant in an inert clone body would be inadvisable; there was no telling what would happen if there suddenly existed two Rei Ayanami with a connection to Lilith.

'_I should go to sleep. This is getting me nowhere.'_

True to prediction Misao and the others were not much use during the next day. Thankfully neither Shinji nor their parents noticed anything. School was as laughable easy as ever. Misao made a mental note to speak with the others about skipping grades. It would be difficult to keep that secret, but maybe they would be able to get some university degrees by the time they were in their teens. The Second Child Asuka certainly had managed it.

On that day Misao turned in early in the hopes of a night of full sleep. Unfortunately she woke up in the middle of the night, still bone-tired but unable to go to sleep again.

'_Great. Perhaps if I drink something I can finally sleep.'_

Somehow she managed to find the way to the kitchen downstairs while being mostly asleep, not really looking where she was going or paying attention to other matters. She was already pouring juice into a glass and staring pretty much into empty space when a voice brought her to a higher state of wakefulness.

"Um, ah… this is not what it looks like."

Misao blinked, taking in the scene before her. Then she blinked again before placing the juice in its customary place. Slowly sipping the juice, she considered her answer for the largest possible effect.

"So that's why you bought so much whipped cream and strawberries. Kinky. I'll have to remember that one for when I'm old enough. Just remember to clean up after you are finished, please. That's the breakfast table. Oh, and perhaps next time you should lock the door. We have at least one innocent child in the house. I don't think Shinji is ready to see you… having your fun in this way."

Shinobu and Keiichi simply goggled at her. Misao finished her juice, rinsed out the glass and yawned. "I'm going back to bed. Goodnight and have fun."

Misao was already out of the door when she heard a "Did she just say that?" and smiled. It was fun to disconcert their parents. Considering how… active Shinobu and Keiichi were it was a wonder they didn't walk in on them more often. On the other hand she and her sisters could determine where a person was by the means of their AT-fields. Keeping Shinji away was far more problematic and required a coordinated effort. On the other hand it might be advisable to let him see something. It wouldn't do for him to think sex was something unnatural.

Misao was half up the stairs when she realized that the level of contraceptives in Shinobu's body was far lower than normal. She immediately focused her AT-field on the place where Shinobu kept her medicaments. It seemed someone in the medical company had made a mistake. The active substance in that batch was missing. For a moment she pondered to do something about that, but then she decided against it. What would happen would happen and another sibling would be interesting.

* * *

Shinobu Morisato was in a daze when she returned from her visit to the doctor. She had suspected something when she missed her period and the news about the faulty batch of contraceptives broke, but now she had proof. She was pregnant and didn't know what to think about it. It wasn't that she was unhappy; it was just very unexpected.

She and Keiichi had been married for over three years now and never thought about having more children. With how the girls had been at the beginning caring for another child would have been impossible. Then she had simply continued taking the contraceptives without giving it much thought. There were already a big family with six children (including Shinji), although the trend after Second Impact had been larger families than before.

Arriving at home, Shinobu sought out her husband. "Dear, there's something I have to tell you…"

* * *

Ryoji Kaji reluctantly ended the kiss and stepped back from his girlfriend of three years. Her train had already been called several times and she would have to hurry.

"I have to go. We'll stay in contact, won't we?"

He gave her a smile. "Sure."

In their hearts they both knew it was a lie. Now that Ritsuko had graduated from university she would join her mother in the research arm of Gehirn in Tokyo-3. Officially Ryoji would join the Japanese delegation to the UN in a few days after working for the Ministry of the Interior for the last year, but in truth he would work as a spy all over the world… for SEELE and others. Both would be busy with their own lives and it was uncertain if they would ever see each other again.

Ritsuko gave him a last kiss. "Goodbye, Ryoji."

He could only watch in silence as the woman he loved walked out of his life. She was the only one who called him by his given name. He honestly preferred being called by his last name, but Ritsuko blithely ignored his wishes in that regard.

He sighed as he left the railway station. The last three years had been the best of his life. Originally he had noticed Ritsuko only in passing as a friend of his then-girlfriend Misato. Two weeks after their break-up (he had just dumped his rebound girl) Ritsuko had approached him on her own. One thing had led to another and they had been together ever since. For a while there had been some leftover attraction to Misato that had complicated things, but over time it had faded. Misato now was one of his best friends and they got along famously despite their brief, ill-fated romantic relationship. She had left a month ago to work for some security outfit associated with Gehirn. Their time together had ended on good terms, but it had ended.

When Ryoji arrived at his apartment he removed a small box from his pocket, opened it and looked at the ring inside. He had bought it months ago, but each time he had been about to propose to Ritsuko his courage had deserted him. Oh, there was a rational justification. He had been recruited as a future intelligence asset by what he now knew as SEELE before he even met Ritsuko. If he continued and deepened his relationship with Ritsuko when she was about to join Gehirn he would have to outright lie to her and even be forced to use her as information source and he didn't want that. In the same vein he didn't want to give up his budding career as a spy. There were so many things that didn't exactly fit together. He wanted to know the truth and this was the only way of learning it.

He still felt like a damn coward.

* * *

Seven year old Shinji Ikari looked curiously at the newest resident of the Morisato household. Keima Morisato (named after Keiichi's late father) was a very small, very pink and occasionally very loud and smelly bundle of humanity. At the moment he was sleeping peacefully in his crib. It was the first time Shinji actually found the opportunity to spend some time alone with him. If Shinobu or Keiichi didn't hold him one of the girls did.

'_Hard to believe that up until a few days ago he was inside Shinobu.'_

Shinji had made the mistake of asking Misao about where babies came from and she had given him an extremely exhaustive answer. He still tried to forget some of the pictures and diagrams. The mechanics were pretty clear to him, but the reason why people would assume all those uncomfortable positions still eluded him. Well, he had walked in on Shinobu and Keiichi several times in the last year by accident, so it seemed to be true. He still didn't need to see that.

He smiled down at the baby. "I guess I'm sort of your older brother."

Shinji wondered if Keima would object to that later like the girls did. They even seemed to know when he thought about them in that way. It was disconcerting. In contrast, Keiichi and Shinobu didn't mind when he called them mom and dad. He knew they weren't his real parents, but they treated him the same as the girls. He didn't remember much about his real parents. Even their looks had become indistinct in his memories and he had no pictures of them. His mother was dead and his father wished no contact with him. Shinji occasionally wondered why, but he didn't let it bother him overly much. The possibilities ranged from Gendo finding him a too painful reminder of Yui to the man being an utter bastard who had never cared about him in the first place. Since Shinobu and Keiichi didn't seem to like him (and they were nice to everyone) the truth was probably closer to the second option. By now he thought of him more as Gendo than as Father anyway on the rare occasions his thoughts took him in that direction. The teacher originally acting as his caretaker took him to Yui's grave near Tokyo-3 once per year, but he had never seen Gendo there.

The only reminder of his mother was her priceless antique cello that had been delivered to him on his fifth birthday. Currently it was still sitting in storage; he was not yet good enough to use such a valuable instrument and risk damaging it. He was getting better, though, and he enjoyed playing music.

With a last look at the sleeping baby he left the room, careful not to make any noise. He had barely taken any steps before a blue-haired missile appeared at his side. "There you are, Shinji! It's about to start!"

Before he could reply he was dragged to the living room by Ami so fast that he had trouble keeping up. It was then that he realized he had almost missed the starting time for movie night (or rather evening, they weren't allowed to stay up that long). Of course they would have waited for him, but Ami was peculiar about such things. A few seconds later he was seated on the couch between Ami and Emiko. Ami was excitedly chattering away and Emiko as calm as ever. Sometimes he wondered if the girls had some sort of schedule worked out. Who sat beside him always changed.

It wasn't as if he minded; he liked the girls and they were practically the only people his age he could truly connect with. The other kids were always, well, a little dull and slow. They were only learning to read while Shinji had already advanced to far more sophisticated material usually read by people several years older than him as had the girls. They had jumped a grade and there was talk about it happening again.

In the end Ami wouldn't have needed to drag him here; Shinobu first went to check on Keima one last time before setting up a baby monitor at her side. Providing them all with snacks and drinks took even longer.

"Okay, now that we are all ready we can start the movie. It's a real classic." Keiichi said. "Let the show begin!"

Shinji leant back and enjoyed himself as a small spaceship was pursued by another one that seemed to take an eternity to fully enter the screen. He laughed with the others when upon seeing a planet getting destroyed by a giant space station Ami shouted "I want one of those!".

It was good to have family.

* * *

Rei carefully maintained an unreadable non-expression on her face. Even the tiniest mistake would mean everything she had worked so hard for would be for naught. Her opponents were crafty and she couldn't allow herself to underestimate them for even a moment. Still, some sort of decision was required of her.

Finally deciding on a course of action, she opened her mouth. "I raise by ten."

"I match." Emiko replied when it was her turn.

"I fold." Aeko announced shortly followed by Ami, Iku and Misao, leaving Rei and Emiko as the only players in the game.

The two eyed each other carefully, but Emiko kept the same unreadable, calm expression on her face as Rei herself. She was the only one of her sisters she could not out-bluff. After a moment of thought both bet their remaining markers. It was the last round of the game anyway. Then it was time to reveal the cards. The others groaned. Both Rei and Emiko had a terrible hand, but Rei's was slightly better than Emiko's.

Rei broke out in a grin that would have shocked Commander Ikari as well as everyone else who knew her and drew the candies serving as markers towards her. "I win."

Ami shook her head. "We should have never taught you poker, Rei. Both you and Emiko have absolutely inscrutable poker faces."

In an unequalled display of maturity both Rei and Emiko stuck their tongues out. Then Rei shrugged. "I have a lot of practice, you suckers." She popped a candy into her mouth. "Mmmh, sugary goodness." The others laughed.

Rei watched her family surround her and knew happiness.

Iku took a look at her watch. "It's nearly time for us to leave. We still have to clean up."

Devouring another candy and savoring the taste, Rei nodded in acceptance while the others stood up. She wouldn't be able to keep the candies, of course. Her sisters would take them with them when they left, just like the cards and other stuff. Even her body would be purged of metabolical traces. No hints could be allowed to remain. Leaning back in her chair, she observed the others carefully cleaning up the small room she called her own. The poker game had been the culmination of her birthday celebration. Since they didn't know the precise date of her birth they had simply chosen one day that seemed suitable. The date chosen made her along with Emiko the middle sisters. Misao and Aeko were the oldest, Iku and Ami the youngest. Rei was now nine years of age, but she still looked like a five year old. The size difference between her and the others was unmissable and no small source of frustration for her.

The others visited her about once every month or two. Rei lived for those short meetings and the experiences Aeko transferred into her mind. She knew Shinobu, Keiichi, Shinji and even little Keima as if she had spent years in their company. It was her only contact with the outside world. In the three years since her sisters had made contact her hatred for Gendo Ikari, his accomplice Kozo Fuyutsuki and their knowing supporters had grown without bounds. They deliberately kept her in isolation, trying to form her into a loyal tool. To them it appeared as if they had succeeded. It wasn't easy for Rei, but she had quickly become a master of double think. It was a miserable life, but she had no choice. Her sisters believed it necessary and she trusted them. When they talked with their souls there existed no lies.

Misao sat down besides Rei. "Listen Rei, there are some things I need to tell you."

Rei had listened carefully and knew her true nature.

"So, we are aliens?" she finally asked. She already knew about Angels and the SEELE conspiracy, but there was a lot of additional information. Her being an Angel didn't especially shock her. It gave a new slant to her replaceability. They could replace her body, but they could not replace her soul.

Misao shrugged. "Technically we are artificial life forms created by an alien race. At least we originally were; now none of us is anymore. Even our souls changed when I fused them with hybrid bodies. You're still a special case." She sighed. "Your current body is flawed and won't live long. They will transfer you into a new one when your old one dies. It should be a simple procedure, but we suspect the Commander will use you for something bad. It will likely happen when the Magi are finished in a few months."

Rei heard what would and needed to happen to her and knew dread.

* * *

Ritsuko Akagi gave the girl Commander Ikari had introduced as Rei Ayanami a last curious look before she followed her mother. She didn't have that much contact with the man, but taking in the child of acquaintances seemed out of character for him.

"She resembles her… it can't be… Yui…" Ritsuko heard her mother mumble.

'_Strange. Hasn't Yui Ikari been dead for six years?'_ Ritsuko couldn't quite remember how Yui had looked since she had only met the woman a few times in passing when she visited her mother. She was worried about Naoko, though. It was only small things, but in the last months Naoko had occasionally shown irrational behavior and signs of instability. Yui Ikari, the Commander's late wife, often seemed to be somehow involved. That obsession with a man's dead wife couldn't be healthy. Ritsuko knew her mother had become the secret lover of Gendo Ikari since she saw them together on her first day back from university back in 2008, but she never said anything. It wasn't her place.

'_Perhaps it's only the stress. Mother didn't have a truly free day in years. I have to somehow convince her to take a long vacation. The Magi will be completed soon. Once they run smoothly Mother has no reason to refuse.'_

"So, how is Kaji? You didn't talk about him for a while." Naoko suddenly asked, apparently having finished her train of thought.

Ritsuko shrugged. "He joined Gehirn last month, but I haven't heard anything since then."

Naoko sent her a side-long glance. "That's a pity. You don't communicate often anymore, do you?"

She sighed. "No, we don't."

There was no sense denying it. She and Ryoji (she refused to call him Kaji, no matter what he said) were drifting apart. Ritsuko hadn't seen him since they parted at the train station in Tokyo-2 two years ago. They exchanged messages with decreasing frequency. She was so incredibly busy with her work and she assumed it was the same for Ryoji. Sometimes she couldn't believe that their relationship had held for three years. When Misato had introduced them she had initially disliked the man. His sloppy grooming and attitude had really bothered her, but for a short time he and Misato seemed to be really happy. To this day she wasn't entirely certain what had induced her to approach him when they broke up. Curiosity perhaps. Ritsuko knew she had some trouble understanding normal human relationships. She had certainly not expected for them to work out so well. There were many differences between them, but still enough common ground. They had balanced each other. For the first time in her life Ritsuko had been truly, genuinely happy. Maybe if they had stayed together…

'_There's no use thinking about that. Both of us wanted to pursue our own careers. I have to concentrate on finishing my part of the Magi.'_

* * *

Ami, the being formerly known as the Angel Ramiel, watched with interest as Iku assembled the last component of their very own supercomputer. Metals and minerals flowed and mixed under the specialized AT-field of her fellow Nephilim, forming an intricate crystalline structure the size of a fingernail. It would be the last isolinear chip required for the start-up sequence. All other parts had already been exhaustively tested.

Iku's specialty aside from analyzing technological devices and interfacing with them was the ability to manipulate materials down to the nano-scale. It was a necessity for an Iruel's task of maintaining and repairing a Moon or occasionally constructing a new piece of sophisticated equipment. Unfortunately her humanoid form had greatly reduced the scope and precision of that ability and using it drained her considerably. Most of the project had to be completed using conventional human technology. It still would be one of the most advanced systems on the planet. They didn't plan on creating a genuine artificial intelligence, but it would be close.

There had been a lot of discussion about the name. Ami's favorite had been Global Lordship and Dominance Overseeing System, but it had been voted down. Something silly about the name influencing the computer. In the end Emiko's suggestion had won out. Since the system's primary purpose was subverting the Magi of Gehirn they had named it Astron following the Greek word for 'star'. The Magi of legend had followed a star as their guide and the new Magi would do the same.

Ami's contribution to the system had been some highly advanced mathematical algorithms for the programming and some exotic matter Iku needed for some of the more sophisticated components. She had still some difficulties with her Dirac Sea, but she was the only one aside from Emiko who still retained one. Hers wasn't a means for transport though. It was a high-energy reactor with all sorts of interesting properties she still didn't fully understand. Without an angelic body and a fully mature core to support it its usefulness was limited, but she still could create all sorts of interesting energy states and particles. Unfortunately she still needed to learn more about human physics to be able to really apply it. The stuff in her head from her time as a Ramiel was so alien that she could hardly make sense of it.

Ami still felt strange about that. She was human (or at least something nearly so), but at the same time she was not. Mostly she preferred to see herself as a human with superpowers, just like in all those shows and manga. After all, they were trying to save the world. Their methods weren't nice (and involved taking over the world at a later date), but at least humanity would survive. She was a heroic villain? A villainous hero? Something like that.

Anyway, if one of the others requested something specific like Iku had done with her need for exotic matter she could generally find the necessary procedure, but she had no true overview and understanding of her own capabilities. Misao's and Aeko's areas of expertise didn't have anything to do with it, meaning they couldn't help her. Iku knew a bit about technological applications but not the stuff behind it. Emiko's shadows as extension of her usage of higher-dimensional phenomena came close and were very different at the same time.

"Finally finished." Iku shouted after she connected the last isolinear chip and closed the cover panel. "Is everyone ready?"

After everyone give their assent Iku used the telekinetic component of her AT-field to connect the computer to the power system of their hidden bunker. In turn it was connected to the electric grid of the city (whose control had been manipulated to hide the extra energy usage). They would connect several standby generators later (or maybe even construct a genuine power source. She had some neat ideas that wouldn't go boom) once they had verified everything worked correctly.

Nothing happened aside from some lights on the control console changing their color and a deluge of text. It was a thoroughly unimpressive display. Well, Iku probably accessed and supervised the computer with her AT-field anyway.

"SYSTEM INITIALISATION COMPLETE. SYSTEM CHECK SHOWS NO ANOMALIES. ACCESSING DATABASE. ADJUSTING COMMUNICATION SUBROUTINES. Greetings, my divine masters. I am Astron, your loyal servant. Which of your enemies shall I smite today? And yes, Mistress Ami, there will be big booms."

Four pairs of eyes turned towards Ami. She laughed nervously. "Um, I might have snuck some things into the personality algorithms?"

* * *

Rei knew she would die today. Commander Ikari had given her exact instructions on how to behave and what to say, but had conveniently left out the little fact of how Dr. Naoko Akagi would react. If her emotional development had been as stunted as the Commander planned she would have never realized it, but thanks to her sisters it was obvious. The Commander had subtly undermined Naoko's sanity in the last months and she was here to give her the last push. It was virtually certain the woman would react violently. The others had warned Rei that it would happen soon, but they had not known details.

'_Remember, the end is the beginning.'_

Her death was necessary and she would live again in a new, flawless body. Her body was replaceable, her soul was not. Rei knew that, but she was still afraid.

Hidden in a dark corner, Rei observed in silence the elder Dr. Akagi interact with her daughter. The relationship between the two seemed good-natured, but distant. After today it would only be a memory. Rei had no philosophical objections against killing, but she had nothing personal against either Akagi. They were not involved in keeping her isolated. In fact, during their rare interactions both treated her rather kindly, the younger one especially. The elder one seemed to have some issues with her, but Rei couldn't even imagine what they were about. Sometimes it seemed as if Naoko saw her as a rival for the Commander's affection, but that was just ridiculous. Rei's body still looked like that of a five year old.

Rei recognized that she would forever take a mother from her daughter and knew guilt.

Since she could do nothing but wait she listened to the conversation. It was something about long-distance relationships, happiness and someone named Kaji. Another person named Misato was visiting and Ritsuko would leave early to meet her.

Once Ritsuko had left Rei took a last calming breath and stepped out of her corner. Dr. Akagi soon noticed her presence and turned partially to face her. The woman gave her a smile. "What's the matter, Rei?"

"I'm lost."

Naoko now turned completely around. "Is that so? Do you want to come with me then?"

"No."

"But how will you get home by yourself?"

"That's none of your business, old hag."

"What?" The woman's expression didn't change. Rei supposed she just didn't believe an apparently five year old girl had uttered such an insult.

"I can get home by myself. Leave me alone, old hag."

"You shouldn't call someone a hag."

"But you are an old hag, aren't you?"

The smile on Naoko's face was now gone. "I'm getting angry. Commander Ikari will spank you."

"The Commander is the one who calls you that."

Naoko's expression changed to shock. "That's…"

"That old hag is annoying. That old hag is no use anymore."

The hands and facial muscles of the woman twitched erratically. She didn't even seem to truly see her anymore. Rei remembered her conversations with Aeko about human psychology. This looked like a full-blown psychotic breakdown. Figuratively speaking dozens of little wedges and fissures had been driven into Naoko's psyche over the past years, insecurities used and nurtured. What she was doing now was just driving in the last wedge to shatter the woman… all because Commander Ikari didn't want her around anymore.

Rei watched the complete breakdown of Naoko Akagi, one of the brightest minds humanity had to offer, and knew pity.

Suddenly the woman stood up and advanced on Rei. A moment later her hands wrapped around the girl's throat and _squeezed_.

It hurt. It hurt so very much.

Rei knew she had to die, but did it have to be in this painful manner? Futilely she struggled to draw breath, her small arms and legs flailing instinctively. It was no use against the strength of the grown woman. Her lungs felt as if they were on fire. Darkness encroached on her vision.

Finally, after a seeming eternity of pain and struggle, Rei's brain shut down due to lack of oxygen and she knew death.

* * *

**Author's notes:** Thank you for the reviews.

The story progress of this fic is slower than my original notes accounted for, but sometimes I can't stop myself writing mroe scenes.

So long.


	7. Chapter 7

**Shinji's Angels**

**Chapter 7**

Confusion.

The word described Rei's state of mind perfectly. All-encompassing confusion permeated her entire being. Her memories were a chaotic mess. Even her body didn't feel right. According to some instinctive part of her it seemed to be larger than it should be and she had trouble avoiding tripping over her own feet.

Initially she didn't even remember her name, but it had come back to her. Other things came slowly back, too, as her mind reorganized itself. Still, at the current time her memory largely consisted of disconnected pieces.

Commander Ikari (Was she loyal to him? Did she hate him? She wasn't sure.) had removed her from the tank and explained that she was the replacement for another Rei. After asking her several questions to make sure she was conscious and functional as well as performing a number of medical tests he had brought her to her current room. Then he had left her for the day, leaving her to the task of making sense of her memories.

Resting on her bed, Rei had done just that for several hours when suddenly a ball of blackness appeared in the room, disgorging five girls. Rei had the impression she knew them, liked them and was familiar with the mode of appearance, but the actual memories remained out of her reach.

Then an invisible force immobilized her. The green-haired and the blond girl stepped closer to her, the others remaining behind. "Hello Rei. You are probably very confused and don't remember us. We are your family and want to help you. We have immobilized you for safety reasons. Please try to stay calm. Aeko, if you would."

The green-haired girl bent over her, golden eyes blazing with yellow-white light. Rei felt something entering her mind. Different memories flashed before her eyes, each coming and going in a blink. Soon the memories were interconnected and put in order, steadily lessening her confusion. Some memories had apparently been damaged and lost pieces, but whenever that happened copies of the missing pieces were pasted in. Minutes passed by as Rei remembered who she was. Her entire life played out in her mind in fast motion… until it ended with the memory of Dr. Naoko Akagi choking the life out of her. Everything after that was a surreal conglomeration of impressions she couldn't make sense of. The first comprehensible memory was waking up in the tank of bodies. Finally the light subsided and the green-haired girl she now knew as Aeko stepped back, looking very tired.

"I died." Rei finally said.

"Yes." Misao answered. "We aren't finished, though. This will probably hurt, but now is the most suitable opportunity while your mind is still malleable. I'm sorry."

Before Rei could formulate an answer she felt Misao's AT-field wrap around her extremely closely. Misao's soul somehow _opened_ and pressed something directly into the center of her self, something that felt indescribably familiar and completely foreign at the same time. For a moment she felt a weird flowing sensation when her soul united with whatever that was. Then everything went black.

An indeterminable time later Rei regained consciousness. She was standing in a field of swirling white mist; even the ground seemed to be made out of the insubstantial material. From one moment to the next the mist receded, revealing three figures.

Rei blinked.

One spitting image and two teenage-looking copies of Rei did the same.

"Who are you?"

Three voices spoke in unison. "I am Rei Ayanami."

"That doesn't make sense. There shouldn't be more than one of me active at any time."

Suddenly the two teenage Reis seemed to realize something and smiled. "It appears Armisael was true to her word. We are what you would have become."

A confused Rei was about to ask another question when the foreign and yet familiar memories hit. There was an entire different timeline, reaching far into the future. They were all one. Several lives had shaped a single soul into different facets, the memories of each previous life dulled through death and assembled anew each time into a different personality… just what would have happened had Aeko not used her powers to completely restore and order her memories. Her sisters had told her many things about their nature, but it appeared they had withheld a great deal more. To avoid further confusion under these circumstances she thought of herself as Rei Ib.

Rei Ia was her equivalent in that other timeline. At first glance the events in her life with the exception of her sisters were mostly the same as in her own. They had even died in the same way after about nine years of life.

Rei II was the next incarnation. In the approximately five years of her life she trained to become an Evangelion pilot, fought against the Angels, got to know Shinji Ikari, discovered her own humanity thanks to him and finally died in combat against the Sixteenth Angel, Armisael.

Rei III was the last human incarnation. Her time had been short as her body was rapidly falling apart, but she was also the only one capable of utilizing her angelic powers. She was the one to betray Gendo Ikari and reunite with Lilith's body to participate in Instrumentality.

Together with the insubstantial mist that was all that remained of Lilith they formed Lilith-Rei, the entity that had emerged after Third Impact ran its course. She had seen humanity and Shinji Ikari, the only one she truly cared about, perish and been alone for untold years until Armisael was reborn. The Angel had proposed a course of action that would allow them to travel into the past.

It appeared as if they had been successful. Rei Ib was in the process of merging with Lilith-Rei. By nature Lilith-Rei was a conglomerate being. Now that another factor had been added everything was shifting into a new equilibrium. Lilith's mist was pretty much a non-factor in terms of personality, but the other three would remain part of the new being.

Then things changed. To her surprise Rei Ib realized that she was the mentally strongest by far of the four personalities. Her psychic pull was so great that she wasn't becoming an equal part of a conglomerate being; instead the others were drifting towards her as the new center. Years of interaction with her sisters and learning from them had given her a more distinct mind, knowledge of the world and sense of self. She wanted to make a place of her own while the others more or less drifted along. Additionally, her share of soul was as large as the other three combined.

Rei III, the shortest-lived but ironically second-strongest, was the first to reach her. When their fingertips touched she saw all that her counterpart was. There was nothing objectionable. Rei III's main characteristics were love for her version of Shinji Ikari (a boy Rei Ib knew well from her sisters' memories), a strong will to live and hatred for Gendo Ikari. They merged without the slightest problem, combining into a new being.

When Rei II reached her the merging process stopped. Throughout most of her existence Rei II had only wished to return to nothingness through death and displayed little interest in the world and people around her. It was completely antithetical to what Rei Ib and Rei III were. Even more problematic was her loyalty to and affection for Gendo Ikari, although that had lessened towards the end of her life.

"We cannot unite like this. Give up your bond to Gendo and your wish for death. Only then can we truly become one and live." Rei Ib/III spoke.

Silence reigned for the longest of times.

Finally Rei II nodded once. "I will. For Shinji."

That declaration of will seemed to be sufficient. The merging process started once again and Rei II was absorbed, the unwanted parts of her personality discarded into nothingness.

Then Rei Ia drifted close enough for them to touch. This time the merging didn't just stop, it screeched to a halt.

"What are you? You not only followed Gendo Ikari without question, you actually enjoyed driving poor Naoko Akagi into madness."

Rei Ia didn't answer; she didn't have to. In their current state they could read each other without problem. Their first human incarnation was completely loyal to the Commander; that alone wasn't surprising considering an upbringing without external influences. What was surprising was the deep, malignant cruelty that disguised itself as the voice of truth. The young girl enjoyed destroying people and shattering their hopes and dreams, reveling in seeing them suffer. Maybe it was a development unintended by Commander Ikari; judging from the memories it didn't appear as if he or anyone else had ever noticed it. The almost-isolation during their childhood normally didn't lead to a well-adjusted person. Wanting to make others suffer as she had suffered was a likely consequence. Rei Ib/II/III felt pity for her alternative self, but at the same time she was glad that Rei Ia hadn't survived. Fixing such a distorted person would have required much psychological help; help she would never have received due to Commander Ikari's plans. If Rei Ia had not died when she had she would have spread misery for as long as she could.

There wasn't much else of note in Rei Ia's personality. Frankly, she had nothing Rei Ib/II/III wanted or needed. Due to their differences they couldn't become one. Neither could they truly coexist in the same being. Unfortunately the merging had to continue if they didn't want to end up fighting for control. Suppressing the additional personality now would lead to far more severe problems later on. Expelling her wasn't possible; they shared the same soul. That left only one option. All merged parts agreed, if reluctantly.

Rei Ia's eyes suddenly widened. "What is happeni-" she managed to get out before her mental form dissolved under the onslaught of five sixth of their shared soul. It might be seen as murder, but considering that they were in effect the same being Rei Ib/II/III felt it was more like self-performed brain surgery. Then it was over just as quickly as it had begun. Only a few wisps of dark grey mist remained of Rei Ia. They were quickly absorbed. This time it wasn't really a merging, it was more of a consuming. Memories would be retained, but not the personality.

The girl grimaced slightly as if she had tasted something disgusting. Even dismantled as far as possible some influence of Rei Ia remained and would affect her. She could minimize, but not completely extinguish it. It would bear watching. Still, a streak of cruelty was more acceptable than any lingering loyalty to Commander Ikari.

'_It can't be helped I guess.'_

After making sure things had settled she began absorbing the mist. There wasn't much that remained of Lilith, but it still belonged to her. Soon all the mist had merged with her.

In the end there was only Rei left.

* * *

Misao worriedly watched Rei as she was uniting with her future soul. She had no idea if the process was going well. Rei's soul was in lockdown; even with her AT-field she couldn't determine details. There seemed to be some serious reorganizing going on, but that was all she could feel. Considering Rei's very complicated situation she could make hardly any predictions. It was one of the critical junctures of their plan. The reunion of her own past and future self during Second Impact had gone smoothly, but then again the situation had been completely different. Rei was a far more complicated case what with her soul fragmented and improperly stuffed into a human-like body.

"Everything is still clear. I'm spoofing all monitoring systems. It doesn't look like as if we will have any visitors anytime soon." Iku reported. "Astron is taking care of the Magi, but they haven't yet taken over control of the electronic systems here. Dr. Akagi's death seems to have delayed things and they are still performing tests."

"We might be here for a while. I have no idea how long it will take until Rei wakes up." Misao admitted.

Emiko checked her watch. "The clock is ticking. We have about five hours left until we have to return home."

Ami removed a folded blow-up mattress from her backpack and started setting it up. "We might as well get comfortable."

Soon enough the mattress was blown up. Aeko looked like she was almost nodding off by then. Piecing Rei's mind back together as quickly as possible had apparently been hard work. The group had known that Rei's death and subsequent soul transfer would be an extremely disorienting experience accompanied by partial memory loss. Therefore Aeko had kept copies of Rei's memories in her mental storage to fill any possible gaps.

Misao on her part wasn't feeling tired in the slightest. In fact, she felt as if a great weight had been removed from her shoulders. It wasn't as if keeping Lilith-Rei's soul inside her for ten years (plus time travel) had been an outright strain; the Armisael-type had been designed with such a function in mind. On the other hand she doubted the creators had ever conceived of the possibility of what she had done. Normally an Angel's body (as adaptable as it was) and soul were both shaped for their tasks; a civilization that worked with souls as a standard feature would do no less. Now though her body and to a lesser degree her soul were different. It had been her secret fear that she would be unable to disgorge Lilith-Rei's soul properly. Fortunately her part had gone off without a hitch. The only thing left was waiting to see if Rei's and Lilith-Rei's souls integrated properly.

One hour passed without change, then two. Aeko was soundly asleep by then. Ami was jotting down indecipherable mathematical calculations in a notebook while softly muttering something about particle beams, Cherenkov radiation and containment fields. Iku was playing some video game. Emiko had her head buried in a book. Misao on her part busied herself by making some minor improvements to Rei's new body while monitoring her situation. She couldn't risk changing her into a true Nephilim at this time, but a few tweaks here and there were unlikely to be discovered.

It was another hour later when Misao finally felt Rei coming out of her state. "Rei's waking up. Get ready to neutralize her AT-field. If she goes full-strength it will be noticed by every detector in Japan."

After waking Aeko the five girls took position around Rei, intermeshing their AT-fields. Due to their relatively low power (and manipulation of the AT-field detection systems) they were practically impossible to discover by Gehirn's systems, but the same wasn't necessarily true for Rei. Then they waited. It didn't take long.

Suddenly Rei's eyelids fluttered open. In the next moment she manifested and unfolded her external AT-field for the first time. Her body changed from a horizontal into a vertical position like in one of those old vampire movies Keiichi had found who knew where. Then she rose into the air. The cot she had been lying on was violently hurled away as her AT-field pressed outwards.

Misao let out a grunt of exertion as she struggled to keep the AT-field contained. Rei was _powerful, _the light of her soul easily as strong as four of them combined. Fortunately there were five of them and they were used to working together. Finally the pressure relented.

"I remember. The three other Reis… Shinji… Third Impact… I remember everything." a still floating Rei whispered, her eyes looking at something only she could see. Then her gaze focused on the present, more precisely on Misao. "Armisael."

"I go by Misao Morisato now. The plan worked. It appears you can redo things if you go about it in the right way."

Rei looked at the others. "I know you, but which of the original Angels are you?"

Aeko gave Rei an elegant bow. "Arael, Angel of the Birds."

Emiko smiled enigmatically. "Leliel, Angel of the Night."

Iku made a victory sign. "Iruel, Angel of Terror."

Ami twirled around before striking a ridiculous looking pose. "Pretty soldier of Love, Beauty, Courage and Intelligence, Ramiel, Angel of Thunder! In the name of Geometry I bring divine punishment!"

Rei blinked while the others stared at the blue-haired girl.

"What? Do I have something on my face?"

Misao sighed. "Nevermind. Rei, don't pay any attention to her. She's always like that. We don't have much time until we have to return home, but we can tell you at least the outline of what we kept from you before."

It still took an hour to bring Rei up to speed on everything even using AT-fields for communication and get to know the new her. The merging had caused some noticeable shifts in personality, but it was probably too early for everything to have settled permanently. There wasn't really much for Rei to do at the current time. It was 2010 and Rei would probably only allowed to leave her isolation in 2014. The normal Angels were expected to arrive in 2015.

"We will try to build up resources to help fight the Angels if Nerv's efforts prove to be insufficient, but we won't be able to utilize any large-scale industry. That would bring SEELE's attention to us and by proxy Tabris. We don't want either Tabris going after us." Misao concluded her explanation.

"Astron has already subverted the Magi. They are currently still in the testing phase, but soon they will be connected to practically everything." Iku explained. "We will keep you updated. You should have more freedom then."

Aeko yawned. "I think this is everything for now. We have to get back before morning."

"There is one other thing I have to ask of you, Rei." Misao said after a few moments of silence.

Rei looked curious. "Yes?"

"Do you think you could stop floating?"

* * *

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi closed the door behind her before making sure no other people were in the rooms she used as personal laboratory and secondary office. Then she simply sagged into a nearby chair. She had barely the strength to remove a cigarette from the pack and light it. Exhaling the smoke towards the ceiling, she tried to relax. It was all too much. First the suicide of her mother, then Commander Ikari asking her to take over her mother's duties on the day of the funeral followed by Gehirn's transformation into Nerv. In the months since then she had learned more and more about the true background of what they were doing here, more than she had ever imagined.

'_Second Impact… SEELE… the Evangelions' true nature… Lilith… the Rei clones… the planned dummy plug system… Mother, did you know about all this?'_

Ritsuko didn't think so, but there was no way to be sure now. Perhaps the pressure had simply become too much and her mother had seen no other way out. She had already shown signs of instability in the last months before her death. Ritsuko certainly felt the burden of the knowledge. Her tasks were very demanding, too… and now another thing had been added. The woman removed the short note from her pocket, reading the crumpled paper once again.

_Come to my office tonight_

_Wear the clothes I bought you_

_G.I._

It seemed the Commander wanted her to take her mother's place in every way. He had made some advances of that sort in the last weeks. The note and box with rather revealing clothing had appeared in her office this morning. Her first reaction had been disgust, but another part of her wanted to don the clothes and visit the Commander's office. It had been years since she had met Ryoji Kaji face to face, the last man she had been intimate with. Time and distance had pretty much caused their relationship to fall apart. Now they wrote each other only empty messages every few months. Ritsuko would be lying if she denied being flattered that a man like the Commander showed interest in her. Additionally, the Commander was the source of all power in Nerv. Getting closer to him would mean more power and knowledge for her. Rebuking him could cause trouble for her. Still, something was holding her back. Doing this would mean severing the last tie to Ryoji. It seemed the man still held a special place in her heart.

Ritsuko shook her head. She didn't know what to do. In fact, she had agonized over the decision the entire day, but she couldn't put it off much longer. The day was almost over; after one last task she would either have to leave or go to the Commander.

A knock on the door caused her to sigh and stub out her cigarette. It seemed her appointment was there.

"Come in, Rei."

The door opened and the blue-haired girl silently entered the room. Ritsuko didn't really know what to make of her. She now knew that the girl was only the last in a series of clones, ready to be replaced if necessary. The tank full of Rei clones deep down in Terminal Dogma had been an extraordinarily creepy sight, just as the Eva graveyard and the so-called LCL production plant that was in truth Lilith's body. There was some sort of machinery there that made backup copies of Rei's memories if a clone had to be replaced. Apparently the process wasn't perfect, though. This Rei seemed somewhat different from the one before besides looking like a nine or ten year old. The last clone had never looked older than about five years of age, but considering that Rei rarely ventured up from her quarters near the cloning facility it was doubtful anyone else had noticed the sudden jump in age. Besides, the vast majority of personnel had been shuffled to other locations in the wake of Gehirn's disbandment and Nerv's formation.

Ritsuko had been tasked with personally overseeing Rei's health a couple of months ago, but she didn't know anything about why the last clone had to be replaced. The Commander had only said something about instability. Normally she would have preferred going down into Terminal Dogma. Unfortunately she just didn't have the time today.

"Please remove your clothes while I warm up the machines, Rei. I'll be right back."

A nod was the only sign that Rei had understood. The girl seldom spoke. A few minutes later Ritsuko was just returning from the neighboring room when she saw Rei bent over the table Ritsuko had been sitting at.

'_I left the Commander's note lying around.'_

She was about to snap at Rei when she got close enough to see that the girl wasn't paying any attention to the note. Instead she was running a hand across the cat plushie Misato had gifted her on her visit a few months ago. She had brought it to work yesterday to decorate her desk. It served as a reminder of her beloved cat she had been recently forced to hand over to her grandmother. She missed the animal dearly, but with her increased responsibilities and frequent overtime hours she just didn't have the time anymore to properly take care of it.

'_There aren't really any toys in Rei's room.'_ Ritsuko suddenly realized.

Ritsuko continued watching Rei for several seconds. The girl was obviously interested in the toy, but hesitated to really take it into her hands. It made her seem far more human than the nearly emotionless clone she was.

Mindful of the time, Ritsuko cleared her throat. "Rei, please come along."

The girl didn't flinch; she just stopped petting the toy and silently followed Ritsuko into the next room. Most of the following hour was spent with various testing procedures. Ritsuko was still getting familiar with Rei's biological peculiarities. She had the mindless clones and the Commander's records as standard of comparison, but it was still a difficult task. While this clone appeared to be considerable more stable than the last one and required less medication there were still many differences that separated Rei from a normal human.

Once again Ritsuko felt unsettled by Rei's demeanor. The girl was obediently following each of Ritsuko's instructions in silence. Questions were answered with the least amount of words possible. When Ritsuko thought about it the only times she had seen Rei display emotion was in contact with Commander Ikari and even then it wasn't much.

'_Then again, what do you expect from a girl living in almost complete isolation?'_ Ritsuko asked herself silently. The scene with the plushie entered her mind again. It was such a simple thing and yet it touched something in Ritsuko.

Soon enough the examination was finished and Rei was about to leave. Following a sudden impulse, Ritsuko called out. "Wait a moment, Rei." The girl stopped and turned around while Ritsuko fetched the plushie from her desk. Then she stepped up to Rei and pressed it into her hands. "Here, I want you to have it."

The wide-eyed look of surprise on Rei's face convinced Ritsuko once and for all that the girl did have a normal set of emotions. She was just unpracticed in expressing them. After a few moments in which Rei's gaze shifted back and forth between Ritsuko and the plushie her face assumed its usual neutral expression. Ritsuko felt Rei's gaze bore into her own eyes. She had the distinct feeling of being judged.

Suddenly Rei seemed to come to a decision, stepped forward and engulfed a surprised Ritsuko in an awkward hug. She didn't expect that reaction and was sure her face showed the surprise. Ritsuko's eyes nearly popped out of her head when she felt something touch the core of her being and words appeared in her mind.

"_Stay calm and do not answer. No place in Nerv is secure. I am speaking to you using my AT-field. There is much you do not know. I might be dancing on the Commander's strings, but I am not his puppet. I want to live. Never trust Commander Ikari. The only one he cares about is Yui. I was created in her image. Everyone else including me is an expendable tool." _Suddenly the image of Commander Ikari instructing Rei appeared in Ritsuko's mind. _"The old hag is annoying. The old hag is no use anymore."_ Then the image changed to Ritsuko's mother. The scientist watched with mounting terror as Rei repeated those words, causing a mental breakdown. The scene ended with Naoko choking the life out of Rei. _"Never speak or write of this. If you are seen as a liability you will be deposed of by the Commander. If you take steps against him SEELE will kill you. You are needed. Do nothing compromising. The Angels are coming."_

In the next moment the hug ended abruptly along with the mental contact, almost causing Ritsuko to stumble. By the time her brain was working again in anything approaching normal Rei was already gone.

Ritsuko stumbled towards her chair and sat down heavily, her thoughts racing.

'_What was that?' _Ritsuko asked herself, staring expressionlessly at the computer screen in front of her. Another part of her mind was already analyzing everything and drawing conclusions.

Rei was a human-Angel hybrid, so her possessing a useable AT-field was in the realm of possibility. There was no indication of such a capability in the records, though. Rei being skilled enough in its use to facilitate a form of telepathy was even more astounding under these circumstances.

'_Well, it is part of the soul. Maybe its use is instinctive?'_

It wasn't just words Rei had projected into Ritsuko's mind. There had been full-blown memories. Everything had been underlaid with emotions. One point stood out. Rei really, really _hated_ the Commander. That explained why she had kept her abilities secret. She had declared her independence from the man, or at least the wish for it, but acknowledged that she had to follow his commands. It seemed she really was a person, not an object.

The next point was the most important and most horrifying: Gendo Ikari had killed her mother. Oh, it had not been his hands that did the deed, but he was responsible nonetheless. Naoko had loved him and he simply discarded her when he felt it convenient. Ritsuko felt sick that she had ever considered sleeping with the bastard. The show he had put on at her mother's funeral had just been that, a show. In this moment she wanted nothing more than revenge, but Rei's warning against that had been extremely forceful. Ritsuko had not just heard the words, but felt the urgency behind them. If she did anything that made the man or his backers doubt her usefulness she would die. Even if she somehow managed to kill the bastard first (and she was unsure of her ability to kill a human with her own hands) they would hunt her down.

Ritsuko struggled to keep her expression under control. She knew that many rooms had some sort of surveillance. Until now she had assumed her laboratory (or apartment for that matter) didn't belong in that category. She wouldn't stake her life on that, though. It was hard to keep a tight lid on her emotions. She wanted to scream and destroy something, but she couldn't even risk changing her expression.

'_Oh god, how will I manage to face the bastard every day?'_

Her eyes fell on the packet with clothes and an idea emerged. She wanted nothing more than to burn them on the spot, but they gave her an out. She would act insulted. Not so much to be seen as a liability, but enough to create some distance between them. That should give her enough time to get her emotions under control.

'_Why did Rei tell me this?'_

One rather minor act of kindness seemed hardly reason enough for someone in Rei's position to reveal everything she had. Ritsuko could cause a lot of problems for Rei now. On the other hand, the girl was still a child and an extremely lonely one at that. Ritsuko doubted anyone else had shown her even the slightest affection. The Commander had effectively sent her to her death. She was probably desperate for any genuine affection. If she was really a telepath she would be able to determine that and Ritsuko's gift had indeed been genuine without any ulterior motive. If Ritsuko remembered correctly she had treated the girl rather kindly on the rare occasions they met before the death of her mother.

Then realization hit her. The memory of her encounter with Naoko had been permeated by one primary emotion. Guilt.

The blond woman almost laughed. Rei remembered being strangled to death by Naoko for uttering a few admittedly insulting words and she actually felt guilty about Naoko's suicide. It was ridiculous, but endearing.

'_I have to find some way to help Rei. Without her I would have made a grave mistake.'_

* * *

Kozo Fuyutsuki, Vice Commander of Nerv, watched the video recording in astonishment. Rei hugging someone was unprecedented. Dr. Akagi seemed equally surprised. After Rei had left the room she sat down and stared into empty air for a long time before resuming her work.

"This development is surprising. Did you expect that?" he asked Gendo Ikari.

As usual the man's face was half-hidden by his hands. "There always existed the possibility of some personality shift as result of the soul transfer. The scenario is not in danger. Rei remains completely loyal. She handed over the compromising object without hesitation when I asked."

The older man raised one eyebrow. "I assume you gave it back to Rei?"

"There was no reason for me to remove it after verifying Rei's continued loyalty. Dr. Akagi befriending her will give us an avenue of manipulation and leverage over the good doctor."

Fuyutsuki nodded while suppressing a grin. He was aware that this was actually a plan made up on the spot after Gendo had failed to establish a sexual relationship with the younger Dr. Akagi. It was not publically known (Dr. Akagi had been very discreet), but Fuyutsuki knew of the scientist blowing Gendo off. It gave him no small amount of secret, malicious glee to see Gendo so humbled. If only Yui had acted the same way so many years ago… Well, he had not really approved of that course of action in the first place, but they needed some measure of control over Nerv's chief scientist. They had to move fast to replace Naoko with someone not already under SEELE's influence. That someone couldn't be allowed to dig too deep at the same time. This was as good as anything else they could have come up with.

As long as they held Rei's loyalty Dr. Akagi would be under their control in the years to come.

* * *

In an undisclosed location belonging to SEELE an obelisk made out of an unknown material that had withstood even the best methods of investigation suddenly began changing. Indecipherable, constantly changing symbols and characters appeared on its surface. Cameras roused by automated detection systems began flashing in a constant stakkato to capture as much as possible, but the true information would be provided by the humans deliberately placed as watchers. Each and everyone who looked at the ever-changing obelisk began babbling in his or her mother language while undergoing severe convulsions. They would die very soon, but by then their purpose would be fulfilled. All their ravings would be carefully recorded, assembled and compared for this was the true source of SEELE's information: The intentionally misnamed Secret Dead Sea Scrolls.

"...and he spoke: Heed the signs for Adam's children cometh.."

"... sixteen divine messengers shall descend from the heavens..."

"The Angel of Water shall be the first to impose his test upon humanity..."

"... twin Angels of... "

"Beware the Angel of Haze for he shall steal the form..."

"... pass the trials of ascension to ..."

"... the power of the Black and White Moon united shall..."

"... if you wish to choose destiny... Red Earth ceremony..."

"Instrumentality... Instrumentality... Instrumentality!"

* * *

**Author's notes:** Thank you for the reviews.

AT-fields are indeed the swiss army knife of powers.

Rei took a risk here partly motivated by guilt, but the opportunity was too good to pass. Ritsuko's close relationship to Gendo and later resentment of Rei would cause a lot of problems. Better to head it off immediately.

Next chapter should hopefully show more of Shinji and advance the timeline with greater speed.

So long.


	8. Chapter 8

**Shinji's Angels**

**Chapter 8**

"…I expect you to work closely with Dr. Akagi, Rei. If she ever shows any sign of doubt I want you to report it immediately. The scenario requires…" Gendo Ikari, the supreme commander of Nerv ,said before he continued giving more detailed orders. As usual he was sitting behind his desk, his hands folded in front of his face. Fuyutsuki was silently standing to the side.

'_I wonder how the Commander would react if I ripped his arms off? And beat him to death with them? Would that still be in the scenario?'_ Rei idly mused while maintaining a completely neutral expression with just a hint of adoration.

Each encounter with Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki was a test of her self-control. All it would take was a short flare of her AT-field to reduce the two men before her to smears on the floor. It would be so _easy_. Unfortunately no matter how satisfying it would be for her it would cause far too many problems, meaning she had to refrain from squashing them like bugs for now.

Enough of her attention was focused on them to get the gist of what the Commander was saying and appear attentive, but she really had better things to think about. Ways to kill the two men in the most painful manner possible, for example. With creative application of her AT-field the options were limitless, really. She had reached number 756 (shred their bone marrow from the inside out with the rest of their bodies intact) by the time the Commander finally finished.

"Do you understand your task, Rei?"

"Yes, Commander Ikari."

"Good. You may return to your rooms."

A short time later Rei was standing in an elevator, waiting for it to reach Terminal Dogma. It was certainly inconvenient to reach her quarters. Maybe she would be able to influence things so that she would be relocated earlier than 2014 like in the old timeline. Four more years in a suite of windowless rooms would be aggravating. Maybe Dr. Akagi would be able to do something. Rei had been ordered to get closer to her, after all. The irony of her being ordered to assure the loyalty of Dr. Akagi was truly delicious.

'_I didn't expect my reaction to that plushie to have such far-reaching repercussions.'_

It had been a purely impulsive act on her part to pet it. The cat plushie had been so cute that she had simply been unable to resist. She certainly had not expected for Dr. Akagi to gift it to her, triggering her decision to contact the woman via AT-field and reveal certain things to her. It had been a risk, but the potential payoff was worth it. Additionally, she had not wanted for Dr. Akagi to end up as Gendo's lapdog again. No one deserved that. Now that Rei possessed her complete memories she was able to draw comparisons between the two Ritsuko Akagis she had known.

The Dr. Akagi from the old timeline had always behaved coldly professional towards her. Sometimes there had been flickers of more benign emotions, especially at the beginning, but mostly the woman didn't see her as an independent intelligent being with true free will or human rights. Towards the end it had turned into jealousy about Rei's perceived relationship to the Commander (and wasn't that laughably absurd) and finally hate. In retrospect the woman had already started out with some issues, but the toxic relationship to the Commander had certainly not done her any favors.

This version of Dr. Ritsuko Akagi was clearly more sympathetic to her. It was subtle, but she seemed to be happier, kinder and more balanced in general than her counterpart. At some point the timeline had clearly diverged to some degree, but neither Rei nor the other five Nephilim had any idea how exactly that had come to pass. Their knowledge of the past was mostly limited to what Rei had personally perceived, what the Angels had gathered during their attacks (which included a complete mind rape of Asuka and a not quite so destructive psychic scan of Shinji) and bits and pieces picked up during Instrumentality. A detailed personal history of Dr. Akagi had not been among that information and it wasn't as if they were omniscient in this timeline either.

'_Maybe it is because I am different. If I behave differently than it is logical to assume the reactions of others to me will be different, too.'_

Trying to preserve the details of the timeline had been hopeless anyway. Little things could have countless knock-on effects.

Finally arriving at her destination, Rei retrieved one of her new books (as well as the cat plushie) and got comfortable. She already knew the contents from the last timeline, but she needed a way to explain her knowledge. It was a bit irritating. Before the reunification she had been learning new things (if only new to that incarnation of her); now she had to retread old ground. Fortunately her progress had been faster than in the old timeline. Even before any improvements Misao had done she had possessed a nearly eidetic memory and a sharp intellect, but last time around she had been hampered by her rather lacking upbringing. In fact, if her psychological makeup had been human she would have been a total head case instead of only being socially stunted and indoctrinated. Regular human interaction was absolutely necessary for the healthy development of a child, interaction she wouldn't really would have had.

Anyway, in the old timeline Rei had been learning university-level knowledge on her own while she visited high school. She figured she would manage to get a university degree this time, especially with her closer association with Dr. Akagi.

Rei was still reading when a familiar globe of darkness materialized, disgorging her five sisters. After the customary greeting they got down to business. When Rei retold the newest development with the Commander's orders regarding Dr. Akagi much amusement was the result.

"That is certainly convenient. The good doctor will be very useful." Aeko remarked.

"It is. I hope to able to influence development of the Eva weapon systems that way, too. It would be preferable if I have weapons at my disposal that can actually hurt Angels."

"Don't get your hopes up." Iku cautioned. "We are already doing what we can, but most secondary systems for the Evas are already contracted. SEELE is heavily involved in those because the money is part of their network to keep the governments under control. There is a limit to how much influence we can exert. Our technological and monetary base is growing and I'm hacking into more and more systems, but we can probably only prevent some of the worst idiocies."

"That means I will have to use ineffective trash like the Pallet Rifle again? Wonderful."

Misao shrugged. "Nothing to be done about it."

Iku had the next most important news. "They have finally connected the Magi to the major electronic systems in the Geofront and Tokyo-3. They run practically everything. As far we can tell there are no significant independent systems left. That means we completely own their base now. Astron, say hello to Rei."

Suddenly the intercom crackled to life. "Greetings, Mistress Rei. I look forward to fulfilling your commands to the utmost of my ability."

Rei blinked. "Hello Astron. Iku, how does that work?"

"Simple. If the Magi can observe you Astron can too. He will intervene if necessary. Primarily he will edit information, but he can do more. We will have to establish a list of inconspicuous signals and code words if you have to tell him something when others are present."

The blue-haired girl nodded. That would be very useful.

"There is another matter. We aren't sure yet, but it seems as if SEELE has recently received new information about the Angels. We intercepted a transmission that the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls were updated. The particulars and the how are still unknown to us, but it seems the number of Angels is sixteen this time around."

"That would be one less than in the previous timeline." Rei concluded. "Does that count include Adam and Lilith?"

"We don't know, unfortunately."

For a few moments they nobody said anything. Then Rei voiced a question that had been on her mind since shortly after she regained her full memories. "Do you know anything about Asuka?"

"She is in Nerv Germany. Our access to their systems is limited, but everything seems to be unchanged." Aeko answered. "We probably could send her the occasional message, but nothing more. It risks exposing us, too."

Rei simply nodded in acceptance. "Then we will let her be."

She was still not sure what she should do in regards to Asuka. The Second Child's behavior towards her had ranged from mocking to actively hostile. Rei II, III and even Lilith-Rei had intensely disliked her in return. Dealing with her again would be… unpleasant. On the other hand it offered the opportunity for some payback. She wasn't the Asuka Rei remembered, of course, but if she was similar enough it would be justified. Rei would have to think about that carefully.

The visit continued with more light-hearted matters, like how Shinji and his adoptive parents were doing. Then it was time to leave. Misao seemed to suddenly become very uncomfortable. "Rei, there is something else we have to discuss before we leave. We wanted to wait until your personality settled after the soul reunification to bring it up."

Rei narrowed her eyes. This was very unlike her blond sister. "What is it?"

If anything Misao's embarrassment increased. "I might have made a teeny tiny little mistake when I broke the loyalty programming of the others. Nothing dangerous to the plan, you understand. It might even be beneficial."

"Then what exactly is the problem?"

"Well, you see, while it doesn't have direct negative consequences it does complicate certain matters…"

"What. Is. It?" Rei ground out. This stalling was getting on her nerves. At least with her sisters she could allow herself to show her true emotions.

"I accidently overwrote the other four's loyalty with love to Shinji. Irreversibly. They want to be together with him, too. We will have to share, at least with Aeko and Emiko. Iku and Ami aren't sure yet. Please don't hurt me." she said in a rush.

Rei was silent while she considered the situation from all possible angles. Misao was growing even more uncomfortable under her unwavering gaze by the second. Then she considered some more. Finally she came to a decision.

"I call dibs on the first baby."

* * *

'_I will need more space soon.'_ Iku mused while she methodically assembled another piece of technology. Now that Astron was up and running she had more time for other projects that had been on the backburner before, a Standard Template Construct fabricator chief among them. It would be limited in scope and complexity compared to her own abilities, but it would eclipse anything humans would be able to build. Of course, it was nothing in comparison to the production complexes of a Moon. The part of her that had been Iruel really missed having access to a star forge… or an Angel specialized on building things. An Iruel was more intended for repairs of existing things than construction from scratch.

Once built the fabricator would speed up further expansion of their technology and manufacturing base massively, but until then she had to create each component from raw materials by hand. Astron had been the first priority due to the timetable of the Magi construction and the fact that the fabricator required an advanced controlling intelligence anyway if she didn't want to shepherd it the entire time during a production run.

'_So much to do and so little time.'_

During the day they were expected to visit school and other activities, meaning they didn't have much unsupervised time. Fortunately they could use a large part of the night thanks to their reduced need for sleep in comparison to humans. Unfortunately they were completely dependent on Emiko to teleport them around. Nine year old children running around in the streets would cause problems.

Sealing the finished component seamlessly with her AT-field, Iku put it into a storage cabinet.

"Astron, how are projects Dragon Hoard, Atlas Bound and Waste Prevention coming along?" She could have communicated directly with the supercomputer by way of her AT-field, but she tried to build the habit of doing it verbally when in a secure location. It always annoyed her sisters when she was silently conversing with Astron, cutting them out of the conversation.

"Well inside the projections for the most part, Mistress Iku." the baritone of the supercomputer answered. "Your net worth continues to grow at the expected rate. Disposable capital remains limited at the current time, but covers the monthly expenses with a 20 percent safety margin. Shares of the relevant companies are slowly accruing in the shell companies. Preparations for the founding of Mid Bio Informatics are 60 percent complete, Hyperdyne Systems 30 percent, TriOptimum Corporation 25 percent. At the current time my capacity is sufficient for management of all tasks, but I respectfully request the creation of one or several specialized subordinate systems in the future."

The redhead nodded in acknowledgement. They had stolen considerable seed money from various crime organizations and put it to work, but their main profit came from a high number of small margins Astron generated by manipulating the stock market. "I will consider it."

"The T-RIDEN-T Land Cruiser project has been successfully sabotaged by me without arousing suspicion. Efforts to salvage the project have been prevented. Resources are being shifted by the military to other projects as hoped, project Prism chief among them. My projections indicate that a fixed defense system and a tank-mounted mobile version should be ready for production in time for the Angels. Umbrella Corporation is being set up for take down and liquidation in two years, at least a year before their bio-warfare projects will reach critical state and pose the danger of going out of control. Japan Heavy Chemical Industries continues to pursue the Jet Alone project despite our attempts to the contrary. Their systems are too well-shielded for me to access them at the necessary level. A more direct effort will be required to shut it down."

Iku tapped her finger thoughtfully against her lips. She would have to do something about that. Whoever had made the design for that Jet Alone thing ought to be shot. Using a nuclear reactor in a front-line weapon system that was likely to sustain heavy damage and would fight in inhabited areas was beyond stupid. Contamination with radioactive matter from the reactor was a certainty and difficult to clean up with the humans' current technology level. That wasn't even talking about how the lack of an AT-field made it completely unsuitable to fight against Angels. It had no means of actually hurting one or defending itself. Even if an Eva managed to neutralize the field for it Jet Alone was a completely inefficient weapon platform.

'_Without a passive AT-field to screw with the laws of nature it can't even operate on most terrain. There are such unfortunate things like maximum sustainable pressure per unit of area until the ground gives in, not to mention mass and inertia makes a giant robot like that a sitting duck. Going for a giant bipedal form under these circumstances is just idiotic.'_

For a moment Iku considered arranging a hit on the people in charge before discarding the idea. Too much could go wrong. She would have to settle for completely ruining the people and companies involved. There was no telling what other idiocies they might produce even if Jet Alone was stopped.

"Set up a new system of shell companies. They are to use a pyramid scheme to acquire enough capital to damage Japan Heavy Industries beyond repair. If necessary attack the suppliers instead. Take care to bury all tracks. Keep me informed of the progress." Iku ordered.

"I live to serve."

Iku nodded. Gathering and using economic resources was very difficult without arousing suspicion. SEELE had the world in its grip even if they didn't control everything. Any large-scale activity would be noticed by them. From what they had been able to reconstruct SEELE had anticipated the possibility of Second Impact and prepared accordingly for the catastrophe. In the wake of the destruction they had advanced from one admittedly powerful secret cult among many to the secret rulers of the world. They would be difficult to deal with. On the plus side the Nephilim had the world's most advanced supercomputer and the ability to mind rape select persons on their side. For example, they would soon pay several officials of the Ministry of Education a visit to plant the idea of some educational reforms, chief among them an express program for young geniuses. It would mainly allow them to pursue their careers without making public waves. That was especially important for Shinji. Still, their greatest advantage was that neither SEELE nor Nerv had any way of knowing of their existence. It was still a tall task.

'_And that doesn't even include the Black and the White Tabris. There is no telling what they might have available they didn't use last time around.'_

With a sigh Iku left her workshop. Her free time was up. All of her sisters had established workshops and laboratories of their own in the bunker complex to indulge in their interests. Iku's rooms were the most extensive followed by Misao's. Her biological research aside from the human-to-Nephilim transformation was mostly irrelevant to the fight against the Angels, but provided results they could use in the long-term to generate more money. That in turn allowed them to secretly gain more and more influence in the world. They had to be careful not to draw scrutiny from SEELE or governments, but at some point in the future they would control the world's economy. Aeko didn't really need a secret workshop, but she had a storage area for rare and interesting works about languages and diverse esoteric topics. Emiko wasn't really scientifically inclined and only occasionally experimented with her control over shadows and higher dimensions. Ami wanted to do more, but without sophisticated equipment her options were limited.

'_It is getting cramped again.'_

Since they couldn't hire a construction company they had resorted to something different: Emiko simply swallowed sections of rock and either dissolved them in her Dirac Sea or dumped them into the depths of the ocean. A few robots Iku had constructed did the rest of the interior construction. As soon as the fabricator was finished she would build more of them, too.

'_Come to think of it, we will need a genuine power source soon. Regular use of the fabricator will require more energy than we will be able to draw from the human network. There is a limit to how much we can hide.'_

Before she left the bunker complex she used her AT-field for one last check. Everything was running as it should, but she mentally noted to improve some of Misao's stasis pods as soon as she finished the fabricator. The specimen needed to be kept fresh. Another check of the hidden cameras outside made sure that there were no potential observers in the vicinity.

It still took Iku some time to reach the most suitable exit. The wooded terrain provided ample cover for their visits. The possibility of playing children finding the access point existed, but was acceptable. Mounting her bicycle, Iku headed home. Her parents believed she was visiting a programming course, but of course she had no need of such things in reality. Lying to them was so easy it made her feel a little guilty. Of course, there were measures in place that would prevent them from finding out the truth, but they never even made the attempt. They trusted them.

Iku let her thoughts run free while she rode downhill towards her destination. The last visit to Rei had brought something to Iku's attention again. She didn't completely understand her four older sisters. The ease with which they agreed to share Shinji was simply unsettling. She had expected some sort of argument or outburst of anger since to her knowledge Rei had originally only agreed to share Shinji with Misao. Neither did she fully understand humans. Oh, she could function in human society and anticipate their actions, but it had become clear that she lacked a certain instinctive understanding and reactions that seemed to be built-in. Her public image as a child prodigy helped to cover that up, fortunately. A certain amount of strangeness was expected. With the exception of her family she still preferred the company of machines to humans. Perhaps she should talk with Aeko. She understood practically everything about how different minds worked and could explain it in understandable terms.

Arriving at her home, Iku stored her bicycle away and entered the house.

"Mom, I'm back."

"Welcome back, dear. How was your day?" Shinobu asked, a laughing three-year old Keima on her lap.

"Interesting as always. And how is my favorite little brother?"

The little boy held up a piece of paper liberally filled with crayon drawings. "I painted. Look, Iku."

"Very nice, Keima. What's for dinner?"

"I didn't have time to cook anything. Keiichi will pick up pizza when he returns from work."

Suddenly a head full of green hair popped into the room. "I heard somebody mention pizza?"

Shinobu chuckled. "Hello to you, too, Aeko. Yes, but not until Keiichi and everyone else are back."

"Aww…" Aeko seemed to deflate. Then she brightened up. "Still. Yay, PIZZA!"

"Hey, don't simply run away while the game is ongoing." came Misao's voice from the neighboring room.

"Sorry."

Shaking her head, Iku retreated to her room to change. Aeko was normally rather calm and detached (although not to the same degree as Emiko or Rei) when she wasn't teasing or manipulating someone (or going around mind raping people), but she had an almost obsessive penchant for pizza.

Once changed, Iku set out to find what the others were doing.

Emiko was still away for Kendo practice. Iku had no idea why, but her black-haired sister had taken a shine to bladed weapons. A sharp piece of metal was a rather lacking weapon in comparison to guns or especially their AT-fields, but apparently Emiko found it relaxing. When she had expressed her wishes Shinobu had mumbled something about someone named Tsuruko and Motoko and immediately supported her. Iku understood they were some of the friends Shinobu had lost during Second Impact.

Ami was sitting in her room, working on two things simultaneously. When Iku entered to greet her she saw that she was using her left hand to draw incredibly detailed designs for some sort of manga characters while she used the other hand to draw something geometrical that was vaguely uncomfortable to look at. The small portable TV was playing another magical girl show, one of the things Ami seemed to find endlessly fascinating.

Iku found her two remaining sisters and Shinji in the second living room. Aeko and Misao were playing two chess and two shogi games at the same time, moving the pieces in rapid succession. Both acknowledged her with a wave of their hands. Iku noted that they had a conversation via AT-fields going on. Tapping into it, she learned it was about the very first physiological and psychological signs for the onset of puberty. Not wanting to listen to that, Iku broke the connection.

Shinji was sitting on a table and working on something. He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't even notice her entry. Sneaking up on the boy, Iku put her arms around him. To his credit he barely even twitched; he was used to casual physical contact with everyone in the household. For some reason her older sisters thought that important. "Hey Shinji. Watcha doin?"

"Hello Iku. Dad gave me this to assemble without the manual. He didn't say what it was; just that it should be a good way to measure how far I've come in my studies. I know it is an engine, but I'm not sure how to begin. If I start with assembling the wrong part I won't be able to get at some connections later without taking it apart again."

Looking over Shinji's shoulder, Iku surveyed the parts of a complicated model kit spread out on the table. Immediately her mind went to work, analyzing, classifying and deducing each part's purpose far faster than any human ever could without years of training and familiarity with that specific model. Then she pointed out a particular part. "Here, if you start with that block everything should go smoothly."

Shinji blinked at her. "Thanks, but how do you know that?"

Iku shrugged. "I just do." Then she stepped back and took a seat from where she could watch him. "Don't mind me; I'm just interested to see how you do it."

Soon the boy was back to his work, slowly assembling the model engine now that Iku had given him a hint. He really was quite intelligent and the environment they and their parents provided was pretty much ideal. Letting that intelligence and curiosity go to waste like in the old timeline would have been a shame.

'_What do I feel about him?'_ Iku asked herself.

At the current time she really liked Shinji and wanted to be in his company, but she felt unsure about anything further. There certainly wasn't any desire for intimate things or children. She supposed it was because her body hadn't entered puberty yet. According to Aeko her mind had developed practically from scratch. While it incorporated what had been Iruel she was genuinely a child if an inhuman one. That had probably blunted the impetus to love Shinji transferred from the future Rei. Of course, she knew all about adult things. Not only had Misao and Aeko taken to informing them comprehensively, her own work exposed her to a great deal of child-inappropriate content. The worldwide web wasn't what it had been before Second Impact (information was much more tightly controlled), but it was still choke-full with porn.

Iku continued watching Shinji throughout the evening. It was a picture of innocence and familial bliss. He didn't know what awaited him in the future. Even with all the preparations the group made Shinji would have to fight the Angels, be subjected to Yui's and Gendo's schemes and experience the horrors involved. They would have to tell him what they were and what they knew at some point before he was recalled to Nerv. It was still years in the future, but the clock was ticking.

'_Let him enjoy his childhood. The time of truth and responsibility will come soon enough. There is no need for him to grow up before it becomes necessary.'_

* * *

Asuka Langley Soryu, Second Child and designated pilot for Evangelion Unit-02 was steaming mad.

"What do you mean, I need another caretaker? I'm old enough to live on my own."

The commander of Nerv-03, the German branch of the world-spanning organization gave her an indulgent smile. "Now, now, Asuka. I know you are an intelligent, independent young woman, but ten years is still rather young. Now that Mrs. Müller has left us for Nerv-02 you are in need of another person responsible for your wellbeing."

Asuka knew that she had lost. While practically everyone was willing to indulge her whims to some degree there were limits beyond which people would not budge. This was clearly one of them. Well, there had not been much hope of a different outcome in the first place, but it still angered her.

The commander obviously took her silence for agreement and activated the intercom. "Send her in, please." A moment later the door opened, revealing a uniformed Japanese woman. She saluted the commander and gave Asuka a smile. "This is Lieutenant Misato Katsuragi. She will be responsible for you from now on. If you have no questions I suggest you get to know each other."

A few seconds and a short greeting later they were out of the commander's office and walking towards Asuka's quarters.

Asuka gave the woman another appraising glance. Purple hair, young, rather attractive. Or rather very attractive judging how the heads of the passerby turned. She had occasionally seen her around Nerv Germany, but never spoken with her.

The girl's eyebrow began to twitch when she noticed one man copping a feel of Misato's behind in the elevator. The woman didn't react in any way, though. They were already leaving the elevator when a wolf whistle by the groper stopped them. "Hey cutie, how about we meet later, only you and I."

Asuka was about to explode at the disrespectful idiot who had offered himself as a target for her anger, but Misato's hand on her arm stopped her. "I got this."

Misato approached the whistler with swinging hips before stepping very close to him. Then she stepped back, looked him up and down and smirked. "A bit overeager, aren't you? It's pretty sad display, all things considered. I prefer men who have more…" She drew the silence out. "…self-control. Now hush, tuck it in before a bird mistakes it for its next meal."

For a moment confused silence reigned. Then the first bystander noticed the man's open flyer and began laughing. There wasn't actually anything visible beside the man's underpants, fortunately. He was soon joined by others, causing the man to flee once he realized the source of the amusement. Misato stayed a moment and Asuka had the feeling that she was actually posing for the spectators.

'_She certainly knows how to capture attention.'_ Perhaps this wouldn't be that bad.

"Honestly, making such a disrespectful remark when his flyer was open… You'd think men would notice that." Asuka grumbled when they were alone.

"That would be because it wasn't open at first." Misato said with a wink.

Asuka stopped dead in her tracks and gaped at Misato. "You… you…"

"Helped the rude idiot to make a fool out of himself, yes. A little sleight of hand can go a long way."

That left the girl speechless. She wasn't sure if she should be disgusted or impressed or perhaps both. Soon they arrived at Asuka's quarters. The next few minutes were spent with the usual questions, but Misato was clearly not as stuffy as her former caretaker. "Say, are these A10 nerve clips in your hair?"

Asuka touched them. "Yes. I like them. When I'm wearing them everyone can see that I'm a pilot. I want to be the best."

"Do tell? That's an ambitious goal. You'll have some stiff competition. I hear some interesting things about the First Child."

Asuka simply harrumphed. Only one person could be at the top. She would show them. She would show them all.

* * *

Ten year old Shinji Ikari hummed slightly while moving about his tasks in the kitchen. Normally Shinobu did most of the cooking, but today was her birthday and they planned to surprise her with a complete meal. He wasn't alone; the three girls who had some interest in the art of cooking were by his side. Emiko was currently chopping the vegetables, Misao was gently roasting the meat and Ami was preparing the dessert. They worked hand in hand, each doing their tasks without disturbing the others or alternatively being there in just the moment when a helping hand was needed.

Shinji had liked watching Shinobu cook as long as he could remember. Before long their mother figure had included him and the other girls as far as their age allowed, teaching them in the process. Still, this was the first time they were cooking a full-blown meal without supervision.

Shinji subscribed to his father Keiichi's credo: Invest enough effort and you can achieve anything.

All he had seen in his life supported that view. If things went as planned he and the girls would graduate high school next year. It was a demanding schedule. He knew the girls were more intelligent than him, but he was no slouch himself. Their and their parents' support really helped, though. It wasn't as if they were pressuring him. They simply were of the opinion that everyone should work to the best of their abilities. Shinji did it as much to prove to himself that he could do it.

'_I wonder how things would be without them.'_

That was almost unimaginable. It would certainly be a much lonelier existence. Shinji was on generally good terms with the neighborhood kids, but he wasn't really close to anyone besides his family. It was the same with the girls. Their intelligence set them apart from the other children their age. Most of them were just so boring.

Shinji knew it was different for their parents. They were probably among the nicest people on the planet and had no lack of friends. Their drive to help people was just outstanding. Even little Keima was already proving to be quite the charmer in his kindergarten group. Altogether their family was very popular in the town.

They finished preparing the meal just in time. Aeko and Iku had set the table as well as done some more decorating (and kept Keima entertained). There would be a large party in the evening (making a last shopping run was the reason Keiichi and Shinobu were away since before Shinji and the girls had woken up), but they had wanted to do something more personal.

"They are coming." Iku shouted. A few seconds later the sound of a car became audible.

When Shinobu and Keiichi entered the house they were greeted by the sight of a well-laid table, food ready to be served and the seven children gathered to greet them.

"Happy Thirtieth Birthday, Mother." they chorused.

Shinobu was speechless for a moment while she surveyed the scene. "Thank you." Then she proceeded to hug each of them. It always felt good to be hugged.

For a first attempt the meal was surprisingly good. It didn't reach the level of Shinobu's usual cooking, but that was to be expected and no one minded.

Later that evening the party was in full swing. A lot of people had come. Both Shinobu and Keiichi had lost all their close relations and friends during Second Impact, but there were still some relatively distant acquaintances especially from Keiichi's side. Of course, both of them had made many new friends and acquaintances since they had come to this town seven years ago.

When old pictures of their wedding were shown Shinji noticed that Shinobu didn't seem to have aged at all. It was the same for Keiichi and drew many comments from the gathered people. Another fact that was appreciatively remarked upon was the children's academic achievements and behavior in general. It seemed the whole town was proud of them and of the pair's decision to take six orphans in. The existence of Shinji's living father was largely unknown here and never commented on by the people in the know.

When Shinji went to sleep that evening he felt happy. It had been a wonderful day.

* * *

Aeko felt a bit frazzled when she finally fell into her bed in the early hours of morning. Emiko and Misao were in a similar state after last night's activities. It was becoming increasingly difficult to control the knowledge of them and Shinji. The number of people she had to mind rape regularly to keep things under wraps was becoming truly staggering, especially in light of their upcoming academic career. The massive birthday party yesterday had been a particularly attention drawing event, causing much work for Aeko. People had to know of them, but at the same time they had to regard them not as significant enough to bring attention to them in conversations or otherwise. It really helped that nearly Japan's entire computer infrastructure was under their secret control.

Still, they had spent most of the last night tracking party guests down and refreshing or setting compulsions. Aeko didn't actually need eye-contact or line-of-sight (although it made things easier), but she had to be pretty close to her targets.

Hugging her favorite plush toy closely, she tried to get some hours of sleep in. _'I wish I could simply sweep the land from orbit to do those mind-rapes en masse. They might solve anything, but performing them individually is just so taxing.'_

* * *

Ami stared into the blue, cloudless sky while she carefully went over the equations again. Everything panned out, but a mistake could have deadly consequences. Still, the potential payoff was worth it in her opinion. She had already spent years with getting it just right.

"Okay, I'm ready!"

Her two present sisters looked worried. Misao was the one to speak up. "Won't you reconsider? You don't need to do that."

The blue-haired girl sighed. "We have been over this. Yes, I'm sure. Yes, I know the risks. Yes, I know I could die."

Misao sighed, too. Emiko was silent as usual, but she radiated worry and mild disapproval. "You are stubborn, I give you that. Very well, do what you must."

Ami nodded. Then she concentrated hard, unfolding her AT-field in a very specific manner. She knew where she was and where she wanted to be. It was only a question of geometry to get there. Suddenly her AT-field reached the correct configuration and the world disappeared while she _folded_ away. The sensation was how she imagined being sucked through a straw felt like. In the next moment everything was back to normal again… only her position had changed by a dozen meters.

For a few moments everything was silent. Then Ami jumped for joy, pumping her fist into the air. "I did it! I told you I could teleport, too! Pretty Soldier Ramiel strikes again!" she shouted.

A second later her sisters engulfed her in a hug, their relief obvious.

"This calls for a victory cookie." Ami exclaimed when they had calmed down somewhat. Before her sisters could react she had rushed to the picnic basket they had brought along, removed three of her self-baked cookies, rushed back and pressed one each into the hands of her sisters. Then she plopped down and began to eat while enjoying her surroundings.

It was an isolated mountain valley they had chosen for their test run. Finding locations where they could conduct experiments was rather difficult. While they had a lot of hacking capacity they still didn't control every electronic system on the planet (and probably wouldn't for many years). Satellite coverage was a problem, but the steep walls of this valley gave them a window of opportunity. Regular mountain slides would mask the possible seismic activity they caused. Her sisters had set up several false leads involving the secret laboratory of a mad scientist, but Ami didn't really care much about such things.

Soon the cookie had disappeared into her stomach and she jumped up again. "Okay, time for the second test!"

"Isn't being able to teleport enough, Ami?" Emiko asked.

"Nuh-uh. I'm sure I can do this."

Once again she took up position away from her sisters, but this time she engaged the reactor that was her Dirac Sea. Without the support of an angelic body its usefulness was limited (in addition to its generally reduced capabilities due to their transformation). She really missed the inner torus reactor that would normally help to control, contain and focus the output of her Dirac Sea. Without it there was the steady danger of frying herself if she used some of the more interesting (and energetic) features. The only choice aside from abandoning that part of her abilities was reconfiguring her AT-field properly. That had required lots of math and geometry of the sort that would cause a human's brain to explode. Come to think about it, perhaps she should test that on some human.

The space between Ami's hands distorted as she established a connection to her personal pocket dimension and power flowed into the real world. The position of her hands had no actual influence on the process, but she found it helpful. Soon an ever increasing glow became visible. She clearly felt the energy struggling against the containment. The light became a highly localized blazing inferno. It was time to release the shot.

"Ka-me-ha-me-HA!"

The resulting energy wave and explosion were very loud, very impressive and very pink. Once the dust cleared Ami saw that the blast had caused a massive mountain slide. If she had still been a Ramiel the entire mountain would have been gone, but this was good enough.

"Hooray! Fear my divine punishment, evildoers!"

"I didn't expect the explosion to be so big. They will have detected that all over Japan." Misao said in a somewhat shaken voice, not that Ami was in the mood to notice.

"We have to get away from here. Now." Emiko stated.

"But I want to…" Before she could finish the sentence the darkness of Emiko's Dirac Sea wrapped around them. Ami began to pout. She had wanted to examine the blast site some more and perhaps fire a few more blasts.

"Killjoy. You never let me have my fun."

"That is because your fun usually involves big explosions."

Ami huffed and gave her sisters the silent treatment for the next hours, but in the evening she couldn't keep it up any longer.

"Do you think I should call the attack 'Tender Flashing Blast of Love' or would something shorter like 'Love Ray' sound better?"

* * *

Eleven year old (biologically) Rei floated weightlessly in the tube of LCL, utterly bored. She really wondered why they were doing these weekly sessions. Her body didn't need exposure to LCL to stay stable and the alleged purpose of recording her memories was a lie anyway. Those were included in her soul, not in any machine. On the other hand, there had to be some reason. Perhaps she should investigate. There wasn't anything urgent to do anyway. Her bachelor's thesis in Metaphysical Biology had been submitted yesterday and she could use some time off before she pursued the next degree.

Finally the session was at an end. Commander Ikari talked with her for a minute before he left. Interestingly more than half the time he was the one to oversee the procedure instead of Ritsuko. Rei supposed he did it to maintain a close relationship to her. She had spent most of the last two years getting closer to Ritsuko and the Commander wouldn't want to lose his (imagined) hold over her.

"I wonder what I should do now." she said out loud.

"You are unobserved, Mistress Rei. Commander Ikari has left Terminal Dogma."

"Thank you. Do you know if there were any modifications to the memory recording system? Or do you have blueprints?"

"I am sorry, Mistress. Information about this system is not included in the Magi's databanks. I observed construction going on in several sections near to that area, but coverage by camera is limited to the main hallways and doorways. Once in Terminal Dogma I mostly cannot track anyone directly."

That was somewhat suspicious. Granted the system had been built mostly by Yui Ikari long before the Magi's construction, but still. It seemed she had to go exploring. When she was bored with learning she often went wandering through the depths of the geofront. By now she was probably the person with the most knowledge of all the endless tunnels.

Rei needed two hours to track down all the different extensions of the supposed memory recording machine. It was surprisingly difficult. From the looks of it this section of Terminal Dogma had been deliberately built to disguise the extent of the machine. Rei had to take a detour through the Evangelion graveyard and use several disguised passages she had never noticed before to reach her destination.

What she found there surprised her greatly. The memory recording machine was connected to the core of an Evangelion. More precisely, it was the core of Unit-00, the Evangelion she would pilot in the future. She had known it was in storage and undergoing testing here, but the connection to her LCL tank was something she didn't know about.

'_Whose soul is in there? Does the machine record an image of my mind to create the me in the Evangelion?'_

That was something she had never learned in the last timeline. An Eva needed a soul to work properly. Rei knew that for the best result the soul of the pilot's mother had to be used. All her future classmates like Kensuke Aida, Hikari Horaki and Toji Suzuhara were potential candidates groomed by Nerv. Their mothers were dead and their souls had been secretly harvested, ready to be implanted into an Eva core. Rei was a special case. Most importantly, she didn't have a mother. Perhaps it had to do something with the Dummy Plug project. The clones used for that were basically soulless, but they were similar enough to Lilith to cause a false synchronization. In effect the soul inside moved the Eva in a controlled berserk state, not the non-existent pilot.

Rei climbed on top of the Eva missing most of it armor and pressed her hand against the core. Then she extended her AT-field. She wouldn't be able to get the Eva to move, but she could contact the soul inside while circumventing the plug and detection systems.

Darkness filled her perception as the connection established itself. Then she heard sobbing. A naked human form came into view, curled up into a tight ball, rocking slightly. Dark brown hair was streaked with large amounts of pale blue. The skin seemed to have random patches that were paler than others. Even the bone structure seemed to be somehow mismatched.

"_Hello? Who are you?"_

There was no reaction to Rei's attempt to establish communication, only continued sobbing. After Rei futilely repeated the attempt several times she hesitated for a moment. Then she drew closer and extended her hand. When she touched the form the woman suddenly reacted and turned towards her. She might have planned to attack, but Rei's massively greater mental strength kept her in place. The face was a mix of two persons, both of them known to Rei. The worst part was the eyes. One eye was brown, the other was red. Both were filled with an unspeakable horror.

If Rei had been a person with less than nearly absolute self-control she would have recoiled. Instead she steadied her grip on the woman's shoulder. It made all terrible sense now.

"_Naoko Akagi, do you understand me?"_

* * *

**Author's notes:** Thank you for the reviews. We have now arrived in 2012 – only three years left to the start of the Angel attacks.

Ramiel's beam is pink in canon, too. The naming options with allusions to magical girls are endless indeed.

So long.


End file.
